vk.com
www.euronews.com
12 minutes looks like a lot of not "sticking around" for a fighter. Over the Baltic, parallel to the border.Russia still seems to be testing NATO's resolve, this time sending three MIG-31s into Estonia's airspace. They picked the fastest aircraft in their inventory so they obviously didn't intend sticking around.
Estonia requests NATO Article 4 talks after Russian airspace violation
Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets lingered in NATO-member Estonia's airspace for several minutes on Friday, according to Estonian authorities.
Not "parallell", but into Estonian airspace.
I suspect it would be a different matter if Estonia started shooting at Russian jets. Don't get me wrong it's part of n.a.t.o and therefore Russia would be taking great risks is any response to that action. That said it's also Estonia and there are serious questions as to how far down the road of nuclear war in Europe anyone is willing to go over Estonia.
That’d be wrong, it didn’t. Russia kept flying into the Turkish air space with no response from the Turks. One example a couple of months after the jet went down:
apnews.com
The "into" and "parallel to" aren't really contradictions. The planes were headed to Kaliningrad, and this is apparently the route they took. They did fly parallel to the border, but inside the Estonian side. The Turkish example, in addition to the details mentioned above, was also a spectacular example of hypocrisy. Several years prior a Turkish recon jet spent hours in Syrian airspace before being shot down. At that point iirc Erdogan said that a violation that small can't be a reason for a shoot down. Now it's possible we have a provocation here by Russia. It's also possible we have a mistake. Either way, it's probably unwise to start shooting down Russian jets, not because it will lead to a shooting war, but because the airspace in that area around Kaliningrad is tight. What happens when a NATO aircraft makes a genuine mistake and wanders in Russian airspace for several seconds, due to taking a turn a little too wide and gets shot down in response? Is that a good outcome? On a side note, I know that Russia has wandered into airspace of the Baltics before, often it's an obvious accident, sometimes it's not clear.
t.me
t.me
It appears this was moved from another thread.
Now it's possible we have a provocation here by Russia. It's also possible we have a mistake. Either way, it's probably unwise to start shooting down Russian jets, not because it will lead to a shooting war, but because the airspace in that area around Kaliningrad is tight. What happens when a NATO aircraft makes a genuine mistake and wanders in Russian airspace for several seconds, due to taking a turn a little too wide and gets shot down in response? Is that a good outcome? On a side note, I know that Russia has wandered into airspace of the Baltics before, often it's an obvious accident, sometimes it's not clear.
bmpd
Распространенная министерством обороны Эстонии карта заявляемого эстонской стороной нарушения ее воздушного пространства тремя истребителями-перехватчиками МиГ-31 ВКС РФ при перелете в Калининградскую область 19 сентября
An accident ? Did RU planes lose their GPS system ? Why would RU send a MIG-31 to Kaliningrad, which is more vulnerable to drone attack from UKR ? RU has been very careful to keep their Khinzal platforms far away from threats.
No one here believes for a second that this was an accident at this time and place. Its another calculated ploy to imply threats to RU neighbors.
Have RU jets flown into TU airspace since ? As far as I know, no.
Yes, I provided a link in my previous post about an example of the Turkish airspace violation by Russia post the incident. That’s only one example. They kept as they were. I would say that it was Turkey that got the message, actually, rather than the other way around. It wouldn’t be the same means with Europe though.
I don’t believe this is the case. An attack on Kaliningrad by Ukraine would mean a definitive use of EU airspace for such an attack, which will not be permitted, in my opinion. Unless we are talking about about the type that involves FPVs as they did during the “big one”; in that case Kaliningrad or elsewhere makes no difference. Kaliningrad is more defended against Ukraine than any other part of Russia, I would say.
Please read the responses provided before arguing about them. The context for the shoot down by Turkey had to do more with Russian strikes on Turkish-backed rebels along the border areas, then it does with airspace violations.
Does a MiG-31K have GPS? That's the variant that was suggested by Russian sources as involved in the incident. A MiG-31BM/BSM certainly would, that variant comes with improvements to the avionics. But the K variant is modified for Kinzhal launches. It's unclear that it comes with any other improvements. I also suspect a provocation is more likely, but I'm far from certain that this is definitely the case.
Yes, and those rebels took a punishment for the incident.
I am fairly certain it was signalling and not an accident. Signalling that they are ready to escalate in order to reestablish deterrence. The drones over Poland was a part of the exercise and I think we may see more of such actions in the near future. On its own, it is a fairly innocent event flying over water, far from the landmass (especially unarmed aircraft, at least according to the reports), but 12 minutes in these Migs implies flying over almost entire Estonia, depending on speed.
Unless launched from an apparently innocent freighter sailing through the Baltic.
Can you use a fiber optic drone over water ? Will the cable function if wet ?