Air Force fighters scramble from Anchorage to intercept Russian bombers

Story by Chris Clint and posted to adn,com

Two Anchorage-based fighter jets intercepted a pair of Russian bombers Monday night off Kodiak Island in what an Air Force commander called the first such flight seen near Alaska in nearly two years.

Lt. Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of both the Alaskan Command and the Alaska NORAD Region, said Tuesday that the detection and intercept of the Tu-95 Bear bombers took place over the course of about two hours from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday.

"I can't go into all of the details on how we detected them, but we did detect them," Wilsbach said. "We were tracking them basically paralleling the Aleutian Islands roughly 100 miles to the south."

In response, two F-22 Raptor jets on standby were launched from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, along with an E-3 Sentry AWACS radar plane. Wilsbach said they were supported by an Alaska Air National Guard KC-135 tanker aircraft launched from Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks.

The F-22s intercepted the Bears about 100 miles southwest of Kodiak, Wilsbach said. The propeller-driven bombers didn't have any external signs of weaponry, and the pilots had no verbal contact.

"There is a procedure where we can talk to them, but generally we don't unless it's some sort of dangerous situation," Wilsbach said. "They waved at one another, but other than that there was no communication."

Read the rest of this article at https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/military/2017/04/18/air-force-fighters-scramble-from-anchorage-to-intercept-russian-bombers/

Intent of Russian military aircraft near U.S. shores remains unclear

Monitoring Russian aircraft

Michael Dinneen / For The Times

Radar technicians at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage monitor crescent-shaped blips, each representing an aircraft moving in Alaskan airspace.

Interesting article on the Los Angeles Times website by W.J. Hennigan re: Russian Bear aircraft flights near Alaska and other NATO countries.

"U.S. F-22 fighter jets scrambled about 10 times last year — twice as often as in 2013 — to monitor and photograph Russian Tu-95 "Bear" bombers and MiG-31 fighter jets that flew over the Bering Sea without communicating with U.S. air controllers or turning on radio transponders, which emit identifying signals.

"The Russian flights are in international airspace, and it's unclear whether they are testing U.S. defenses, patrolling the area or simply projecting a newly assertive Moscow's global power.

"They're obviously messaging us," said Flores, a former Olympic swimmer who is in charge of Tin City and 14 other radar stations scattered along the vast Alaskan coast. "We still don't know their intent."

"U.S. officials view the bombers — which have been detected as far south as 50 miles off California's northern coast — as deliberately provocative. They are a sign of the deteriorating ties between Moscow and the West since Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in March of last year and its military intervention to support separatists in eastern Ukraine.

"Similar Russian flights in Europe have irked leaders in Britain, Ireland, Sweden, Norway and elsewhere. In January, British authorities were forced to reroute commercial aircraft after Russian bombers flew over the English Channel with their transponders off.

"In all, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization says its jets scrambled to monitor Russian warplanes around Europe more than 100 times last year, about three times as many as in 2013. Russian air patrols outside its borders were at their highest level since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, NATO said.

"We're experiencing a reawakening of the strategic importance of the Arctic," said Navy Adm. William E. Gortney, commander of the Pentagon's Northern Command and of the North American Aerospace Defense Command.

"Is this a second Cold War? It doesn't matter what we think," Gortney said. "Maybe they think the Cold War never ended."

You can read the entire article at http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-alaska-russia-20150406-story.html#page=1

Britain says fighter jets scrambled to intercept Russian bombers

Blog Editor's Note: Yesterday I had an opportunity to monitor the Russian Air Force TU-95 Bear H voice network on 8131 kHz USB during this event. It was pretty neat to know that they were flying their strategic long range bombers in the North Sea and I was listening to them.

Some of the ground station call signs monitored included Adris, Balans, Katolik and Geolog. Aircraft in this net use their five digit numbers from their "RA" registration.
( e.g. RA-72181 would be 72181).
This morning has been quiet but their is activity on the 11360 kHz USB Russian Air Force net.

LONDON (Reuters) - British Typhoon fighter jets were scrambled to intercept
two Russian Bear long-range bombers which had flown close to UK airspace,
Britain's Ministry of Defence (MoD) said on Thursday.

The Russian planes were detected flying over the Channel, south of England,
on Wednesday and typhoons were launched from Royal Air Force (RAF) bases at
Lossiemouth in Scotland and Coningsby in eastern England, the MoD said.

"The Russian planes were escorted by the RAF until they were out of the UK
area of interest. At no time did the Russian military aircraft cross into UK
sovereign airspace," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

Last year, NATO conducted more than 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft,
about three times as many as in 2013, amid sharply increased tensions
between the West and Moscow over the Ukraine crisis.

Elizabeth Quintana, a senior research fellow at defence think-tank the Royal
United Services Institute said Wednesday's incident was unusual however, and
could be linked to Britain beginning an inquiry into the death nine years
ago in London of Kremlin critic and ex-KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko.
[ID:nL6N0V742E]

"Normally Russian Bears come past Norway and down the North Sea. It could
have been used to probe the RAF speed of reaction south," she told the Daily
Mail newspaper.

"Flying any military aircraft in or close to the sovereign airspace of
another country signals displeasure or at worst aggression."

Russian TU-95MS Bear Net heard on new winter freq

Reporters on the UDXF newsgroup are reporting that the Russian TU-95MS Bear W CW Beacon / CW Net  have shifted operations to a winter frequency of 8112.0 kHz

According to Tom Hill the winter USB voice frequency for these Russian Air Force aircraft is 8131.0 kHz.

NATO Tracks Large-Scale Russian Air Activity in Europe

Norwegian Air Force F-16 Intercepting a Russian Bear Aircraft

Blog Editor Note: We have been following this military situation on our @MilcomMP twitter feed via various Bear HF Net frequencies. Will post more on them on the MilcomMP twitter feed as they pop up.

Story by SHAPE Public Affairs Office
MONS, Belgium – NATO detected and monitored four groups of Russian military aircraft conducting significant military manoeuvers in European airspace over the Baltic Sea, North Sea/Atlantic Ocean, and Black Sea on 28 and 29 October 2014.  These sizable Russian flights represent an unusual level of air activity over European airspace.

Eight Russian Aircraft Intercepted over North Sea / Atlantic Ocean on 29 October 2014

At approximately 3:00 a.m. CET on 29 October, NATO radars detected and tracked eight Russian aircraft flying in formation over the North Sea. F-16 aircraft from the Royal Norwegian Air Force were scrambled, intercepted and identified the Russian aircraft, which included four Tu-95 Bear H strategic bombers and four Il-78 tanker aircraft. The formation flew from mainland Russia over the Norwegian Sea in international airspace.  Six of the Russian aircraft then turned back to the north-east towards Russia, while two Tu-95 Bear H bombers continued south-west, parallel to the Norwegian coast, heading to the south-west. The Russian aircraft continued over the North Sea, and  Typhoon fighters from the United Kingdom were scrambled in response.  While over the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal, the two Russian aircraft were intercepted and identified by F-16s from the Portuguese Air Force. The Russian aircraft turned back heading north-east, flying to the west of the United Kingdom. NATO aircraft from the United Kingdom and Norway were standing by and NATO assets on the ground and in the air tracked the Russian aircraft throughout. At present, the two Tu-95 bombers appear headed back to Russia, but as of 4 p.m. CET the aircraft were still airborne.

The bomber and tanker aircraft from Russia did not file flight plans or maintain radio contact with civilian air traffic control authorities and they were not using on-board transponders. This poses a potential risk to civil aviation as civilian air traffic control cannot detect these aircraft or ensure there is no interference with civilian air traffic.

Four Russian Aircraft Intercepted over Black Sea on 29 October 2014

During the afternoon of 29 October, NATO radars detected and tracked four Russian aircraft flying over the Black Sea in international air space, including 2 Tu-95 Bear-H bombers and 2 Su-27 Flanker fighter jets.  Fighters from the Turkish Air Force have intercepted the Russian aircraft and NATO is continuing to track them in international airspace.  As of 4 p.m. CET the aircraft were still airborne. 

Multiple Russian Aircraft Intercepted over Baltic Sea on 29 October 2014

During the afternoon of 29 October, NATO radars detected and tracked a number Russian aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea in international airspace, including 2x MiG-31 Foxhound, 2x Su-34 Fullback, 1x Su-27 Flanker and 2x Su-24 Fencer jets.  Portuguese F-16 Fighters assigned to the Baltic Air Policing Mission were scrambled in response and the Russian aircraft returned to Russian airspace.   

Seven Russian Fighter Jets also Intercepted on 28 October 2014

During the afternoon of 28 October, NATO radars detected and tracked seven Russian combat aircraft flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.  The aircraft were detected at approximately 2:30 p.m. CET on 28 October and included 2x MiG-31 Foxhound, 2x Su-34 Fullback, 1x Su-27 Flanker and 2x Su-24 Fencer jets.

The Russian aircraft were flying in the Gulf of Finland and were intercepted by German Typhoon fighter jets from NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission in order to identify the aircraft and protect Allied air space.  The Russian aircraft continued into the Baltic Sea and were subsequently intercepted by Allied fighters from Denmark as well as fighters from Finland and Sweden, which are not members of NATO.  The Russian fighters continued to the Kaliningrad Oblast.  The Russian aircraft had filed a flight plan with air traffic control authorities, were using transponders, but did not maintain radio contact with civilian air traffic control.

NATO jets were on standby throughout the duration of both Russian flights and Russian aircraft were continually tracked using Allied assets on the ground and in the air.  NATO has conducted over 100 intercepts of Russian aircraft in 2014 to date, which is about three times more than were conducted in 2013.

Scrambles and intercepts are standard procedure when an unknown aircraft approaches NATO airspace.  However, such flights pose a potential risk to civil aviation given that the Russian military often do not file flight plans, or use their on-board transponders. This means civilian air traffic control cannot detect these aircraft nor ensure there is no interference with civilian air traffic.

NATO Allies protect their airspace on a 24/7 basis. Allied air defense efforts are focused on stopping unauthorized incursions into NATO airspace and on preventing acts of airborne terrorism.