The video is only 15 seconds long but it gives you goosebumps. A week ago, off the coast of Alaska, an F-16 fighter jet belonging to the Air Force and a Russian Su-35 fighter jet were involved in an incident that was captured on the first ship’s camera. real tragedy. The reason was that the Kremlin pilot made a careless maneuver just a few meters away from the American ship. “He put everyone in danger,” they warn from Washington.
Without context, the incident might have remained little more than a simple encounter reminiscent of ‘Top Gun’ in the North Pacific. This comes at a time of increased military activity in the region and rising international tensions with the war in Ukraine and the Middle East in the background.
A high level meeting. The incident occurred off the coast of Alaska on Monday the 23rd. An Air Force F-16 aircraft assigned to the North American Aerospace Defense Command NORAD became the unlikely hero of a scene worthy of ‘Top Gun’ while flying on a routine mission after spotting the Russian aircraft. While tracking a Russian Tu-95 bomber, the American pilot saw a Su-35 fighter jet, also under the command of the Kremlin, quickly heading his way. The Su-35 passed in front of the F-16’s nose at short range within seconds. headbutt.
You don’t need to imagine the sequence. There was a camera on the US ship that recorded in detail what was happening. The 15-second video was posted on the official NORAD account on X, along with various photos of the event. It is interesting because in addition to the Su-35’s maneuver, the recording also includes the American pilot’s cries of surprise and the yawing of his plane. headbutt.
Click on the image to go to the tweet.
“He put everyone in danger”. More or less reckless maneuvers headbutt The number of Russian fighters is not new. They have existed in military aviation for decades and were relatively common during the Cold War, as private defense site The War Zone recalls. If the incident involving the American F-16 and the Russian Su-35 became a news story that attracted general media attention, such as CBS News or the Associated Press agency, it was because the United States publicly complained about what was happening. And force it.
On Monday, NORAD released a brief statement. “His behavior was unsafe, unprofessional and endangered everyone, something not seen in professional air forces,” General Gregory Guillot said. And because a picture is worth a thousand words, the tweet is accompanied by a video.
Where did it happen? The incident occurred off the coast of Alaska, according to Air & Space Forces Magazine, the Air and Space Forces Association’s newsletter. Of course, in a very specific region. The Russian aircraft were operating in a protected area known as Alaska’s Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ). This was acknowledged by NORAD itself, which reported on Monday, September 23 that it had detected and tracked four Kremlin planes at that point.
This detail is not unimportant since ADIZ, as its name suggests, is a defensive “identity” field. It covers the airspace surrounding the United States and Canada, but NORAD acknowledges that it is no longer their sovereign territory.
“Quick identification”. “ADIZ begins where sovereign airspace ends and is a defined extension of international space that requires rapid identification of all aircraft in the interest of national security,” NORAD explains. It has a defense network of satellites, radars, and aircraft for its control that allows it to track other ships; This is what happened on Monday the 23rd.
The organization assumes that the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace without reaching the sovereign surface controlled by the United States and Canada.
What is important, where… and of course when. Although NORAD’s initial statement explained that “Russian activity” in Alaska’s ADIZ was relatively regular and “not considered a threat,” its tweet from two days ago raises the tone and blames the Su-35 pilot for his conduct. His message and the backlash it sparked (a U.S. senator on the Armed Services Committee advocated increasing the U.S. military presence in Alaska and the Arctic) are better understood when given the context.
And the context is determined by two main factors. The first is military mobility in the region. The Air and Space Forces assure that during September Russian aircraft entered Alaska’s ADIZ at least four times, and the 23rd four aircraft were pursued under the orders of the Kremlin. Additionally, CBS, citing NORAD itself, reveals that the frequency of attacks by Russian aircraft has increased. 26 cases were recorded in 2023; 25 so far in 2024.
Is there more? Yes, the US military has also shown interest in the region recently. It recently deployed 130 soldiers with mobile rocket launchers to a remote island chain in the Aleutian Islands in western Alaska. Recently, eight Russian military aircraft and four warships, including a pair of submarines, approached during a joint Kremlin-China military exercise.
The second important factor to understand the context is the escalation of international tensions. Firstly, due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has continued for more than two and a half years and has led to serious sanctions against Russia by the West. The second, much more recent, is the conflict in the Middle East; Here, the war in Gaza is accompanied by Israel’s attack on Southern Lebanon and the action of Iran, which fired almost 200 missiles at Israel. Netanyahu has already announced that he will retaliate.
Pictures | NORAD (X)
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Source: Xatak Android
Ashley Johnson is a science writer for “Div Bracket”. With a background in the natural sciences and a passion for exploring the mysteries of the universe, she provides in-depth coverage of the latest scientific developments.