WW3 Scenario? 28 Russian Planes Intercepted Over Baltic Sea by NATO Jets in One Day

Wow


Sent from my iPhone 6 Plus RTR

Any other POTUS in our history would have sent them a very strong message. As it is, this administration, and especially the person at the top, is not feared or respected by any other nation in the world. I'm not surprised that Putin is pushing the envelope as far as he can, just to see how far he can go.

Meh. What could go wrong?

On the other hand, if one pilot (or air defense gunner) gets twitchy at the wrong time...
Things could get weird.

Bama Reb said:

Any other POTUS in our history would have sent them a very strong message. As it is, this administration, and especially the person at the top, is not feared or respected by any other nation in the world. I'm not surprised that Putin is pushing the envelope as far as he can, just to see how far he can go.

Click to expand...

I believe he is seen by people around the world who mean us harm as weak and vacillating.
Inside the United States, I do NOT want the President putting on airs. I'm his boss, not the other way around.
When it comes to foreigners dealing with him, I want them to see him as something close to a god. They bow to the President, The dadgum President of the United States should not bow to any foreigner.

The Democrats may never nominate another white male candidate, since they have established just how incompetent and corrupt a Democrat President can be as long as he is black. BHO did not just set the bar low, he took the bar and set it on the ground. And then got re-elected...

Walk softly and carry a big stick. Use when necessary.

dvldog said:

Walk softly and carry a big stick. Use when necessary.

Click to expand...

Our if you are the current POTUS, walk backwards and apologize for frequently.

Sweden’s air force chief, Major General Micael Bydén, said the aircraft’s transponders, which make the plane visible to commercial radar, were shut off. Swedish fighter jets were sent up to identify the aircraft, and Hultqvist later identified it as a Russian intelligence plane.

“This is serious. This is inappropriate. This is outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder,” Swedish defence minister Peter Hultqvist said on Swedish radio.

Click to expand...

Bingo. Anytime transponders are turned off they neutralize their ACAS (Aircraft Collision Avoidance System) that is installed in other aircraft in the area and radar tracking for Air Traffic Controllers handling traffic in a given area. Since the flight crew spends more time focusing on the instruments than watching for other aircraft, it takes only seconds for a collision to occur. When you have two aircraft approaching each other at a combined speed of 1000mph or more, a few seconds is rarely enough time to manually avoid a collision.

I'm certainly not excusing what Putin is doing, acting like a bully. But I'm guessing that even though the transponders are turned off in his fighters, those fighters have very good knowledge and control of their relative location and the threat of a collision is virtually non existent.

Bamaro said:

threat of a collision is virtually non existent.

Click to expand...

100m isn't that far at 500 mph. Only takes about 1 second to cover.

Bamaro said:

I'm certainly not excusing what Putin is doing, acting like a bully. But I'm guessing that even though the transponders are turned off in his fighters, those fighters have very good knowledge and control of their relative location and the threat of a collision is virtually non existent.

Click to expand...

If they have their transponders turned off they likely have their active radar turned off too. So it's a potential charley foxtrot.

Unless Ivan was really out of control, there was next to no danger. The vectors of commercial aircraft are well publicized, so the Ruskies knew full well where to expect airliners. Also, turning off your transponder doesn't make you invisible to anyone's radar, it only makes you unidentifiable. Although what they did is probably a violation of international agreements, it would probably only be significant if they were in the traffic pattern or buzzing the airliners for thrills. Much of this is so much political drama and brinkmanship. Newsworthy, but not as severe as it sounds.

CajunCrimson said:

I think the Saudi's efforts at overwhelming the oil market have less to do with shutting down shale production as it does with choking the economy of Russia and their buddies in Iran

The crash of oil prices may be making Putin panic a bit

Click to expand...

I doubt it, Russia and Syria are great allies.

Lets just tell Russia to go bomb Iraq, Afghanistan and this Isis people.

Here's an interesting article contrasting the perspectives of the West and of Russia:

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2014/12/17/russia_seen_from_within_110862.html

...the Americans and Europeans are deluding themselves on the effects of sanctions. In general, I personally have little confidence in the use of sanctions. That being said, the Russians gave me another prism to look through. Sanctions reflect European and American thresholds of pain. They are designed to cause pain that the West could not withstand. Applied to others [such as Russia], the effects may vary.

Click to expand...

The case of Kosovo is extremely important to the Russians both because they feel that their wishes were disregarded there and because it set a precedent. Years after the fall of the Serbian government that had threatened the Albanians in Kosovo, the West granted Kosovo independence. The Russians argued that the borders were redrawn although no danger to Kosovo existed. Russia didn't want it to happen, but the West did it because it could. In the Russian view, having redrawn the map of Serbia, the West has no right to object to redrawing the map of Ukraine.

Click to expand...