Su-24 flights over an American destroyer. "Cook" was again "eaten" by Russian pilots. Who shot down the Russian military plane

The Americans accuse the Russians of being aggressive. The Pentagon video shows how the Russian plane behaves aggressively.

Russian warplanes flew threateningly over the USS Donald Cook several times in the Baltic Sea, news outlets reported citing US Department of Defense sources on April 13. Sources, who wished to remain anonymous, said that on April 12, a Su-24 attack aircraft flew at a height of ten meters above an American missile cruiser.

"This is the most aggressive behavior we've seen before," said a U.S. official who wished to remain anonymous. On Wednesday, the White House said it was "concerned" about the behavior of Russian military equipment.

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Yeni Asya 30.11.2015 NATO Western Alliance is increasing the presence of its military equipment in Eastern Europe, especially in the Baltic States and Poland. Russia has long shown its outrage that NATO is pushing its spheres of influence to the borders with Russia. Relations between NATO and Russia became strained in 2014 when Russia seized the Crimean peninsula and began supporting pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine.

“We cannot regard what happened otherwise as a provocation, as another expression of aggressive intentions against the United States, NATO and Poland,” Polish Defense Minister Anthony Marikevich said in an interview with the RMF radio channel.

In the Russian media, the incident was not widely covered. The news was reported with reference to American sources.

The destroyer "Donald Cook" left Gdansk, Poland on Monday with a Polish helicopter on board, the Reuters news agency reported.

Events began to unfold on the same day, when the "Donald Cook" was in neutral waters at a distance of 70 nautical miles from Russian-owned Kaliningrad. Then, according to the information of the Americans, two Russian Su-24 aircraft flew over the warship 20 times at a height of only ten meters. On Tuesday, fighter jets flew over the destroyer 11 times, but even lower.

In addition, on April 12, a Russian Ka-27 helicopter took photographs of an American warship, flying around it several times. After that, the Su-24 flew over the American ship so low that "a wave rose on the sea," AFP said. According to the Americans, "it was not noticed that the Russian aviation was armed."

"The crew of the destroyer tried to contact them [the Russian pilots] via radio, but they didn't respond," a US military source told Reuters.

Igor Konashenkov, head of the press service department of the Ministry of Defense, said on his Facebook page on Thursday that Russian Su-24s were conducting training flights and, “having found the ship in the visual zone, the Russian pilots turned away from it in compliance with all security measures.”

“To be honest, the reason for such a painful reaction of our American colleagues is not clear,” Konashenkov wrote.

In his opinion, the principle that gives the right to American ships to move freely in neutral waters gives the right to Russian aircraft to fly freely in international airspace.

At the height of the Cold War, in 1972, the United States and the USSR signed a bilateral treaty to prevent the emergence of dangerous situations between the armies of countries at sea. The treaty prohibited simulated attacks on aircraft and ships similar to those we have recently observed, the performance of air maneuvers over ships or the dropping of hazardous objects near them. The treaty is still in effect.

“Donald Cook is part of the US missile defense system. When such a warship passes near Russian territorial waters, it attracts the attention of Russia, and it begins to show its presence. Russia is making it clear that it particularly dislikes having such a ship nearby,” says Capt. Juha Kukkola of the National Defense University of Finland.

NATO and Russia have been arguing for a long time about the NATO missile defense system, which the military alliance is going to deploy in Poland in 2018. Russia strongly opposes such an intention and believes that the NATO system is contrary to Russia's defense goals.

Kukkola recalls that the events of the beginning of this week were not particularly exceptional for relations between NATO and Russia over the past two years. After the capture of Crimea and the outbreak of war in eastern Ukraine, such threats are observed, in particular, in the Black Sea.

Have Russian fighter jets created a truly dangerous situation, as the US claims?

Captain Kukkola says the level of risk is related to various factors. One of them is the existing political relations between countries. Using such a destroyer, the country's leadership expresses its opinion "in accordance with the political situation."

“On the other hand, the level of risk is also affected by the level of professionalism of the crew of Russian, and especially American ships,” says Kukkola.

Professionalism reduces the risk of misinterpretations and fateful decisions made in a panic. A professional can understand in many details what the other side is doing. It is obvious that Russia wanted to make clear its protest through its maneuvers, but did not want to create a dangerous situation in the Baltic Sea.

“The Russians did not pursue the goal of provoking the Americans to shoot down the plane,” Kukkola says.

A demonstrative and quickly dispersed expression of one's opinion in the press was sufficient for Moscow.

The Pentagon released footage of the rendezvous of Russian Su-24 bombers with the American destroyer Donald Cook. The incident took place yesterday in the international waters of the Baltic Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense has already stated that the aircraft strictly followed the safety rules. However, in NATO, the behavior of Russian pilots was almost called a declaration of war.

For six seconds of video recording, Western channels have been playing non-stop for almost a day. According to some media reports, the plane passed 20 meters from the deck, according to others, it flew right over the deck, and others almost hit people. The atmosphere is whipped up by people in uniform, one by one: Russia almost declared war.

"The incident is contrary to professional standards for military personnel operating in close proximity to one another," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said in a statement.

The fact that under the wings the aircraft did not have full ammunition, and as soon as they approached the ship, they immediately began to go to the side, the Western channels did not report.

"The crews of Su-24 aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. All flights of Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft are carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace over neutral waters. The flight route of the Russian aircraft passed through the area where the US Navy destroyer Donald Cook was located, approximately 70 kilometers from the Russian naval base,” explained the head of the press service and information department of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Major General Igor Konashenkov.

We are talking about the largest Russian naval base in the Baltic "Baltiysk". At the time of the approach of Russian aircraft, the American ship was only 70 kilometers from this most important operational-strategic formation of the Navy, headquartered in Kaliningrad. The rapprochement could be called a typical display of the flag, but at that moment there was a whole arsenal of weapons on board the American ship.

Of the artillery on the American destroyer, there was the Mark 45 installation, the rate of fire of which is 20 rounds per minute, the Mark 15 Phalanx CIWS anti-aircraft artillery system, with subsonic flight speed, and, worst of all, the modern Aegis combat system - long-range missiles - the same tomahawks , which fly at a distance of 2.5 thousand kilometers, can carry a nuclear warhead. Another hour and the ship could have come close to the Russian port.

Before that, he had already approached the Russian shores twice. Americans like to say that the ship is invulnerable. But in 2014, in the Black Sea, it was recorded by the Russian anti-ship system Bastion. At the same time, Russian fighters approached him.

"Not far from the Crimean coast, our Su-24 bomber turned on the electronic warfare equipment at a distance of a kilometer from this destroyer. The entire control system, radio electronics went out on the destroyer - it turned out to be completely de-energized, the anti-missile defense system, missile weapons control did not work. Even 20 sailors, like They say they wrote a letter of resignation from the destroyer because the American government is not able to protect their lives. We showed them their place and behave properly. They are non-exclusive, not kings at this wedding. They act like they can do anything , but we can’t do anything,” said retired colonel, military observer Viktor Litovkin.

"The appearance of foreign warships in the immediate vicinity of the sea borders of Russia, of course, should remain in the field of attention of our Aerospace Forces. In the event of a potential violation of the sea border of Russia, everything must be done to ensure that this does not happen, and the hostile target is forced out into neutral waters," said Igor Korotchenko, military expert and editor-in-chief of the National Defense magazine.

The practice of overflight of warships by fighters and bombers, in fact, was introduced by the Americans themselves. Russian sailors have been tickled on their nerves since the Cold War.

“From personal practice, I recall the year 1970, when we were sailing on a floating base of submarines, aircraft from different countries flew over us several times daily. I have a whole bunch of photos at home. We were completely calm about this. already refers to psychological stability. For a normal military, this is a common thing, "said the Russian admiral, commander of the Northern Fleet in 1999-2001, Vyacheslav Popov.

"I lived in Japan for 20 years, where the capital was located next to two American air bases. We saw a huge number of cases when American planes loitered over civilian objects. What can we say about the extent to which they did not respect other people's military installations," - said media consultant and human rights activist who worked as a journalist in Tokyo, John Bosnich.

What will be the reaction of American sailors to the approach to their ship, it will become known as soon as the destroyer returns to port. So far, only "not from fright, but from surprise" is reported.

The US State Department admitted that the crew of the American destroyer "Donald Cook" was demoralized after meeting with the Russian Su-24 bomber, which did not have bombs and missiles on board. We learned why this happened and what else Russia has inspiring.

On an unnamed frequency

On April 10, the American destroyer "Donald Cook" entered the Black Sea. On April 12, a Russian Su-24 bomber overflew the destroyer. On April 14, after an ordinary, in general, incident - our planes do not very regularly approach the ships of a potential enemy in neutral waters - the Pentagon made an extremely emotional statement, accusing Russia of violating its own traditions and international treaties. It was mentioned that the crew of the "Donald Cook" was demoralized after the meeting with the bomber, a number of media reported that 27 American sailors had written reports about their dismissal from the fleet. What scared the crew of the destroyer so much?

"Donald Cook" is not a rusty submarine "Zaporozhye" for you, but a fourth-generation destroyer of the US Navy, whose main weapon is guided missiles. This is the most massive post-war ship with a displacement of more than 5,000 tons: 62 have been built since 1988, and 13 more are planned. In the normal and strike versions, the destroyer is equipped with 56 or 96 such missiles, respectively.

The 380 people who make up the crew of the ship are well protected. The combat posts of the "Donald Cook" are surrounded by Kevlar - 130 tons of this expensive but durable material goes to each ship. The small superstructure is covered with a material that absorbs radar radiation. Below the waterline, the destroyer is protected by armor made of high-strength magnesium-aluminum alloys. To reduce underwater noise, air is supplied to the edges of the propellers. As a result, a cloud of bubbles is formed, which distorts and smoothes the hydroacoustic "portrait" of the ship.

Finally, the Donald Cook is equipped with the latest Aegis combat information and control system - among other things, it combines the air defense systems of all ships on which it is installed into a common network, allowing you to simultaneously track and fire hundreds of targets. On the edges of the destroyer's superstructure are four huge universal radar antennas, replacing several conventional radars. Together with "Tomahawks" in universal launchers on the bow and on the stern, fifty anti-aircraft guided missiles of various classes are waiting in the wings.

It would seem that the appearance of such a ship in the Black Sea should cause shock and awe. And so it happened, just not from the other side. The Russian Su-24 front-line bomber that flew to Donald Cook did not have bombs or missiles on board. Under the fuselage hung one container with the Khibiny electronic warfare system. Having approached the destroyer, the Khibiny turned off its radar, combat control circuits, data transmission systems - in short, they turned off the entire Aegis, just like we turn off the TV by pressing a button on the remote control. After that, the Su-24 simulated a missile attack on the blinded and deafened ship. Then another and another - a total of 12 times.

When the bomber had left, the "Donald Cook" hurried to the Romanian port to put her nerves in order. He no longer approached Russian waters. The Americans are accustomed from afar, being in complete safety, to grind with missiles poorly armed detachments of some desert partisans. And if that doesn't work, they don't play.

Soldiers of the invisible front

The more complex the electronic system, the easier it is to disrupt its operation by methods and means of electronic warfare. - said the head of the research center for electronic warfare and evaluating the effectiveness of reducing the visibility of the air force academy Vladimir Balybin. - To win in modern warfare, it is not enough to achieve air supremacy. It is also necessary to ensure information superiority.

In addition to the Khibiny, the domestic military-industrial complex produces many different devices that can discourage both regular enemy units and bandits with terrorists. The Airborne Forces began to receive Infauna complexes. Installed on an armored personnel carrier or other military equipment, the complex finds and jams enemy radio communications in the HF and VHF bands, and "lulls" remotely controlled land mines. They will certainly explode - but after the Russian military column passes over them and retires to a safe distance.

The "Infauna" has one more function - optical sensors placed on the sides of the vehicle detect flashes of shots and give the command to set up a smoke screen that shelters the column from fire. The Judoist information security complex, among other things, finds and neutralizes electronic devices that have connected to data transmission channels without authorization.

The product "Lesochek" performs the same functions as the "Infauna", but is much more compact - it can be carried in a backpack or suitcase. With such a case, it is convenient to go to important business negotiations - the most advanced security service will not be able to eavesdrop on them. For businessmen, there is a civilian version of "Lesochka" - it can be mounted in the trunk of a Mercedes.

If in 1995 General Romanov's UAZ vehicle in Grozny had used the "Lesochek" product, the blowing up of the car of the commander of the internal troops might not have happened, - Balybin said.

The basis of electronic protection of tactical formations of the Russian army is the complex "Borisoglebsk-2". It includes an automated control point and four types of jamming stations - in a single algorithm, they find sources of enemy activity on the air and jam them.

The Zhitel device finds and blocks satellite and cell phones, GPS-navigation subscriber complexes. It proved its effectiveness during the conflict in South Ossetia, disorienting Georgian drones. In Chechnya, the head of the electronic warfare department of the Voronezh Air Force Academy, Vladimir Khrolikov, fought terrorists:

We had tracking stations all over the territory. As soon as there was activity on the air, we made a notch and passed it on to the gunners. Dzhokhar Dudayev, as you know, was destroyed by a missile aimed at the signal of his satellite phone. In Grozny, EW specialists neutralized radio-controlled land mines rolled into asphalt.

The re-equipment of Russia's strategic nuclear forces with the latest electronic warfare equipment is proceeding at an accelerated pace, said Dmitry Rogozin, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia. If the army and navy as a whole are re-equipped by 70 percent by 2020, then the strategic potential EW will be updated to 100.

Electronic warfare equipment is what allows our smart weapons to operate, and someone else's smart weapons to fall asleep. And that's right, - said the vice-premier.

After 1991, when an Iraqi MiG shot down one of the American Hornets over the Persian Gulf, F / A-18s did not have combat contact with Russian-built fighters. However, in November 2000, there was still a meeting between American carrier-based aircraft and Russian Air Force fighters, which was "as close as possible" to combat.

To begin with, the floor should be given to the American pilot, a direct eyewitness of the events described (the text of his letter sent by e-mail from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk, against the will of the author of the message, became public).

“... The sailing was quite easy and interesting: 54 days at sea, 4 in port and 45 hours of flight in October alone! (for comparison, many pilots of the Russian Air Force have an annual flight time of about 45-60 hours with the required 200-250) Yeah, we flew off our asses! Since I became one of the squadron commanders, I have been flying a lot. Here's an interesting story (and it's not bullshit).

So, I'm sitting there and chatting about all sorts of garbage with my deputy, and we hear a call on the box from the CIC (combat information center - the "brain" of the ship). - They say: "Sir, we spotted Russian planes."

The captain replies: "Declare an alarm, raise fighters." They say from the center: you can only announce "Alarm-30" (departure in 30 minutes (!) From the moment of the announcement). The captain cursed and said: "Pull everything you can into the air as quickly as possible!" I ran to the navigational telephone and contacted the squadron duty officer. It wasn't our squadron on duty that day, so I told him to find out who was on duty and have them get their asses up and rush to the flight deck (Alarm 7 only assumes you're already on the flight deck and ready to go up in the air: "Alarm-30" means that you are still sitting in the waiting room).

Soon, Russian Su-27s and Su-24s passed directly over the Kitty Hawk's bridge at 500 knots. Just like in the movie "Top Gun"! The bridge officers spilled their coffee and said...! (An obscene expression that has a very emotional Russian counterpart.) At that moment I looked at the captain - his face was purple.

The Russian fighters made two more tight turns at low altitude before we finally launched our first aircraft from the deck. It was ... EA-6B "Prowler" (electronic warfare aircraft). Yes, yes, we launched the unfortunate Prowler one-on-one against a fighter directly above the ship. Our pilots were already asking for help when finally F / A-18s from the "sister" squadron (I use this term literally, since they looked like a company of "women of easy virtue" (the phrase in quotation marks has been replaced by a more decent- administration note), flirting with the Russians) took to the air to intercept. But it was too late. The whole team looked up and watched as the Russians made a mockery of our shabby attempt to stop them.

The funny thing is that the admiral and the commander of the aircraft carrier formation were in the command hall at the morning meeting, which was interrupted by the roar of the turbines of Russian aircraft circling over the wheelhouse of the aircraft carrier. The commander's staff officer told me that they looked at each other, at the flight plan, made sure that on this day the launch was envisaged only in a few hours, and asked: "What was that?"

Four days later, the Russian intelligence service e-mailed the commander of the Kitty Hawk photos of our pilots darting around the deck, desperately trying to get the planes into the air ... ".

The events described in the letter took place in the area of ​​the Korea Strait on October 17, 2000. Two Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft and a unit of Su-27 fighter-interceptors from the 11th Army of the Air Force and Air Defense participated in the overflight of the American multi-purpose aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk . According to the then Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force Anatoly Karnukov, "it was a planned reconnaissance, during which, however, unusual tasks were solved." At the same time, no international agreements were violated by the Russian side.

It should be noted that the American naval maneuvers took place only 300 km from the Russian coast, which in itself could not be regarded as a friendly act towards our country. Therefore, the actions of the Russian aviation were quite justified and lawful.

According to the Commander-in-Chief, the reconnaissance results "were impressive." Su-24MR made several visits to the aircraft carrier, photographing everything that happens on the flight deck. The pictures showed panic on board the ship: the sailors began to urgently cut the hoses connecting the aircraft carrier to the tanker, which at that time was transferring fuel to the Kitty Hawk.

F / A-18 fighters managed to be lifted into the air only after the second entry of Russian reconnaissance aircraft, however, the Su-27s immediately took them away from the ship in a distracting maneuver, which allowed the reconnaissance aircraft to perform several more flights over the aircraft carrier, which was completely defenseless from the air. According to the press, the overflight of the Kitty Hawk by Russian aircraft was repeated on November 9 and was also successful.

Here is how the media described the events:

1) On December 7 in Washington, US military officials Kenent Bacon and Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli held a press conference at which they revealed some details of a series of incidents in the Sea of ​​Japan, when Russian Su-27 and Su-24 reconnaissance aircraft flew at a critical distance to the US aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk based there.

Some time later, an email arrived on the aircraft carrier, Bacon said Thursday, containing two photos of the deck of the Kitty Hawk taken from Russian aircraft during one such Russian Air Force action. The letter also contained a short message in Russian, the content of which Amiral Pietropaoli refused to clarify, UPI reports. According to him, the letter was not sent from the Russian Ministry of Defense, and the sender is unknown to the Pentagon representative.

In addition, Kenneth Bacon said that at a press conference a week ago, when he also spoke about the actions of Russian pilots, he made a number of inaccuracies. Firstly, there were not two, but three cases of overflights by Russian aircraft - on October 12, October 17 and November 9. Secondly, during the October 17 incident, the planes were not “detected at an acceptable distance” a few hundred meters from the ship, as previously reported by the Russian Air Force, but flew directly over the aircraft carrier, which led the US military into confusion. At this moment, the pictures were taken, subsequently sent to Kitty Hawk.

Lenta.ru 8.12.00

2) Russian warplanes in the Sea of ​​Japan successfully conducted an operation to overcome the air defense of the American aircraft carrier multi-purpose strike group led by the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk (KittyHawkCV63). Information about this, published by the Izvestiya newspaper, was confirmed to Interfax on Tuesday by informed sources in the Russian military department. According to them, this happened twice in the Sea of ​​Japan at the moment when the US aircraft carrier group was heading for exercises in the Korea Strait (October 17) and when it was returning from maneuvers (November 9) ... (Interfax November 14, 2000)

According to some reports, the planes were from the 11th Air Army (commander - Lieutenant General Anatoly Nagovnitsyn). The deck at Kitty Hawk was completely unprepared for counteraction, and the Americans seriously decided that they were being attacked, and began to cut off fuel communications in a panic so that there would be no big explosion and fire during the attack. Then they raised the "Hornets" and tried to accompany the "sushki" to the coast.

On the same day, Anatoly Kornukov stated that “The leadership of the General Staff of the Armed Forces highly appreciated the work of Russian pilots who opened the air defense system of the US aircraft carrier strike formation led by the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier. According to him, all pilots will be presented for awards. “It was a planned reconnaissance, although unusual tasks were solved during it. The results of this reconnaissance are impressive,” the commander-in-chief emphasized.

On October 17, 2000, two Su-24 and Su-27 combat aircraft from the 11th Army of the Russian Air Force and Air Defense discovered the Kitty Hawk aircraft carrier and flew in close proximity to it, at an altitude of about 60 m. At the time of the flight, the ship was replenishing reserves on the move in the northern part of the Sea of ​​Japan, between the island of Hokkaido and the Russian mainland. After the flyby, the Russian pilots sent the pictures they took to the aircraft carrier's website. The overflights were repeated on October 20 and November 9

A month later, representatives of the US Department of Defense officially recognized the fact of the overflight of the aircraft carrier. The Russian media prefer the term "conditional destruction".

 

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