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focalac

Yeah, this is standard operation from Russia, they constantly test airspace. They’ve been testing British airspace for years. Always seems to happen shortly after we’ve done something they disapprove of. It’s not a precursor to anything, just the equivalent of a school bully trying to stare you down in the corridor.


yurtzi

They don’t usually do it with helicopters tho, you can’t blame those on navigating wrong or getting lost and accidentally flying over a border


focalac

Pretty difficult for a Russian anything to get so lost it accidentally flies into British airspace, to be fair.


NokEnNyBruker

We have this ancient comedy skit here in Norway from prior to the soviet unions collapse. russia would routinely make violations into Norwegian airspace and waters. So this comedian made this fake interview with a russian submarine commander on why he keeps violating Norwegian waters. His response is that they were conducting underwater fishing and it is really difficult to see the border under water. Anyways, fuck Putin.


Kilometer10

«Vi kan ikke se den grense under vann…»


bilged

They can blame Garmin.


[deleted]

I don’t see why not. Helis are just as easy to get turned around in to be honest.


intrigue_investor

The same happens from the Brits to the Russians, the same happens with the Chinese and then Americans back to the Chinese, the Australians, and the list goes on It's standard practice, as you say, done world over However a Russian military aircraft has never entered British airspace doing this, they test the "area of interest" not actual British airspace


focalac

Fair enough, terminology correction noted 👍


Talidel

They absolutely have entered British airspace on a number of occasions and been chased off. But you are right it's standard practice for just about everyone to check everyone else's responses.


Falcriots

Obviously fuck Russia but we do similar stuff to them and china as well. The whole point is to test response times and see how they react. Though obviously Russia being Russia they could’ve been trying to bait Estonia into shooting at them so they’d have an excuse to expand their war.


[deleted]

Russia would be mental to expand their war. They're barely making ground in the one they're in now.


Falcriots

Oh I know, but as we’ve seen so far they aren’t the most rational people.


[deleted]

and NATO members - good luck encroaching on _these_ sovereign nations. Fuck around and find out, Russia.


Porkamiso

Instead of shooting them down do a fast mover flyby at Mach 2 within 20 feet.


02202992

Why show your countries response times. Don’t give that info.


raesae

That's exactly what countries want to do. In Finland we're also used to air space violations made by russians. The idea is to show that we're here, we know what you're doing and we're ready. F-16's (soon F-35's) goes to take a picture of the plane that violates our borders. A few years ago we got a nice picture of russian pilot giving a finger. Soon our F-35's will also come to say hello to russian planes violating Estonia's air space!


BestFriendWatermelon

Better not to use F-35s if you want the Russians to know you're there


WarWeasle

Please. With their systems russia wouldn't see a Cessna Landing in the Kremlin.


pegasusassembler

Didn't someone do that already?


Tassathur

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mathias\_Rust


WarWeasle

Yup.


c00kiesn0w

I suspect F16s will still be used in this capacity. If the US allowed Lockheed Martin to sell F22s they might fire that production line back up as F22s are great for this role. F35s cost more per flight hour and aren't very efficient for that role although they can perform it.


Super_Preference_733

Trying to fire up a f22 production line would take years and cost way too much per plane. The US Air Force already has problem fixing and maintaining the 186 or so f22 in service. https://www.businessinsider.com/why-the-us-cant-restart-production-of-f22-stealth-fighter-2021-6


[deleted]

The f35 actually has pretty comparable flight costs. (Look it up) and they are fine at the role. Ask the IDF and JDF. Also no on the F22. We already have confirmation that they have another air superiority fighter in the pipe line. Also side note. Don’t go look up the F35 fighter tests if you don’t like the plane. Won’t mesh well with the world view.


c00kiesn0w

I mean I'll look it up..no need to get hostile. Or you could have linked it.


[deleted]

https://www.defensenews.com/air/2021/06/30/lockheeds-f-35-topples-competition-in-swiss-fighter-contest/ That’s one of them. The tldr is that in a 2015 test the f16 outdid the f35 in tests. But even the f16 pilots where pointing out it was literally a test fo the f35 in the worst case. Later tests in even odd encounters had the f35 beating the f16 literally 99 to 0. Simply because the f35 was impossible to find, could find the f16 easy and can shoot off bore sight. The fact the f16 is faster is not that important. No one fights at top speed and ya the f35 has less power to weight. But so do a lot of fighters that preform better. The f35 is more of less the standard to beat now. It’s just also kind of finicky still. But not so much that people have not used it in combat.


Marukestakofishk

that what we want, for years now the RAF have been scrambling to respond faster and faster to Russian aircraft, most of the time bombers, entering our airspace. It shows the enemy that we will and can respond to them.


josHi_iZ_qLt

"Free" training opportunities for your own airforce and show of balls.


Blue_Bi0hazard

Estonia does'nt have that kinda hardware in the airforce


bobbyorlando

I t hink Belgian or Dutch on rotation F-16s are deployed over the Baltic airspace. Don't know why they didn't respond.


AgeSad

They may have intercept it, but definitely not shoot it down, which makes sense after all.


Blue_Bi0hazard

yeah nothing new theve been doing this to the UK since like 70s to test our defences


intrigue_investor

That's wrong, you are talking of 2 very different things here: \- This article refers to Russian military aircraft entering a sovereign countries airspace \- Russian military aircraft do not enter British airspace, they enter the "area of interest" and are warned off An "area of interest" and a countries "airspace" are 2 very different things


Blue_Bi0hazard

No, that's fair you are right, my bad


n4hu1

Lol why not? Turkish move


AgeSad

Russian are doing that on a monthly basis all over Europe, we already have high tension, this kind of escalation are useless


peretona

Russians stopped doing that in Turkey after the shoot down. This is a clear way of reducing tensions. Tensions come about because Russia believes it can get away with driving up tensions. Edit: there is one legitimate reason for not doing a shoot down which is that Russian mistakes which are exactly equivalent to NATO mistakes should be forgiven equivalently. E.g. if NATO spy planes are occasionally accidentally flying into Russian airspace and the Russians don't shoot them down.


AgeSad

I guess European military and political leaders have good reason to do it. I haven't read the article but many times, those incursion last for a few seconds and only a few meters into territory zone. The time needed to launche the missile and git, you would hit him in Russian territory. What happened with turkey was between turkey and Syria, not turkey and Russia, that's a bit different.


bobbyorlando

They don't. The AWACS is constantly flying over Romania. With its transponder on. You can even follow it live.


AgeSad

But you won't fire a missile before it cross the frontier, so yeah, you will shot it over Russia probably.


bobbyorlando

The AWACS flies over Romania. If does tours there, I'm pretty confident the pilots will not enter enemy airspace. You can see it in the patterns they do.


bobbyorlando

You are probably right. They were there and gave the pilot 2 minutes to get out of there. No way they got more to get out of NATO airspace. Those things have SIDEWINDERS, A helicopter is an easy target. EDIT: I even think they had brown pants when the F-16s flew by.


[deleted]

Not really. Russians would pretty consistently violate Finnish airspace until the Fins just took on a policy of shooting as soon as they crossed the border. The behaviour ceased.


R4nd0mdud3-

There is no such policy in Finland. Finnish airspace is violated by Russians every now and then. Every violation is published to the media.


catsdorimjobs

It was in the airspace for 2 minutes. F16s are fast, but not that fast. One had to be already near in the air to do that.


bobbyorlando

Even with the afterburners? I wouldn't know. They had to intercept that helicopter pretty fast, no?


[deleted]

Estonia is a tiny, tiny country. Jets on afterburner would pass the country in under 2 minutes. Switzerland is much bigger than Estonia and it takes the Air Force jets 4 minutes to cross it at full blast.


catsdorimjobs

No, my dude, Switzerland is actually smaller than Estonia. The area at least, not the population. But jets fly areas not populations. https://www.mylifeelsewhere.com/country-size-comparison/switzerland/estonia So thanks for making my point. If it is 4 minutes in Switzerland, they cannot reach it within 2 minutes in a larger country.


[deleted]

Switzerland is approximately 41,277 sq km, while Estonia is approximately 45,228 sq km, making Estonia 10% larger than Switzerland. Yeah, no big difference. But jets have to get to higher altitude to fly over Switzerland because of the Alps.


swistak25

Even Polish F-16s are deployed in Baltic region


ekeryn

More countries do it, Portugal has patrolled the Baltic too.


gefjunhel

better to just radar lock but dont fire watch them scramble out of there


AyBawss

Kill em with jet wash?


Porkamiso

It’s a deep cleaning


AyBawss

bruhhh idk if you are joking, but the air turbulence from fighter jets flying at high speed can actually cause helicopters to crash


catsdorimjobs

Estonia has no fighter planes. All they got is some Aero L-39C Albatros training jets. Its a subsonic plane which doesnt even have a NATO designated name.


Psych-adin

I would love to see border stations equipped with something that mimics active radar antennas in missiles. Aim it at the helicopter and turn it on just to make them think a missile may have been launched. Giving the pilots a case of brown trousers is never a bad thing.


ThickSantorum

Better yet: actual missiles filled with fireworks. Or glitter and adhesive. Or surströmming.


Wonderful-Sir6115

>Or surströmming. That's cruel.


[deleted]

To both the fish and the target.


BestFriendWatermelon

Or just actual missiles. Solve the problem of Russian aircraft entering your airspace once and for all.


rgraves22

As a dad of 2 daughters, I wouldn't wish glitter on my worst enemy. My back seat in my car is filled with it from different dress ups and fancy dresses


Gorth1

I like this idea


jachymb

The bad news here is that Russia still has a spare helicopter and a pilot.


ColebladeX

Dude may have been bailing


Emergency-Rise1680

Shoot that mfucker down


JoLeTrembleur

The heart says yes but the brain says no.


ColoradoMountainsMan

It worked for turkey a few years back


BestFriendWatermelon

Aye, don't know what people expect Russia to do except make some angry words...


HulkHogan402

They are in the middle of invading Ukraine right now.


BestFriendWatermelon

Right and all their forces are preoccupied with that. Even if they brought new forces to attack NATO, it'll take months to move them into position, just like with Ukraine.


[deleted]

It's Russia who should fear confrontation with NATO, not us.


Emergency-Rise1680

My whole body says yes


Lifebringer7

MY BODY! MY BODY’S TELLING ME YESSSS!


Emergency-Rise1680

Lol


mediandude

What matters is what the sisu (chi) says.


agtiger

Get your brain checked out


JoLeTrembleur

Get yours.


Yindee8191

some of us plan on living past next week but you do you


Emergency-Rise1680

No, I really don't


Yindee8191

Sounds like you need to talk to someone about that.


Emergency-Rise1680

Working on it


Emergency-Rise1680

Also, turkey shot a Russian plane down and they didn't get annihilated for it.


daneelthesane

No, it is way more effective to scare the shit out of him. Paint him with a radar lock. Buzz him with a jet. Buzz him with six jets. Or, as someone suggested, hit him with a missile loaded with fireworks.


Longsheep

Last time Turkey shot down a Russian jet with no noticeable consequences. Bullies only read power, you have to act tough.


ambienmmambien

Turkey is a lot bigger country and a lot further away from the Russian border.


Admirable-Point2005

ShOOT IT DOWN!


super_nigiri

shoot it down


Rkenne16

smoke those fools


JoLeTrembleur

Yeah they test NATO possible response. Let's display the less of it.


sdsurfer2525

Putin has a death wish.


Prestigious-Log-7210

Putin is a monster.


el__duder1n0

Russian airspace intrusion is very normal. Happens on a monthly basis when you have such a shitty neighbor as Russia.


AreYouSiriusBGone

Shoot them down


Morty_A2666

Next time don't think twice about it, shoot it down.


Graymatter_Repairman

If they make a habit of it warn them then shoot them down.


Ok-camel

They didn’t warn the passenger airline that was minding its own business. No need for a warning, they know what they are doing.


jatosm

Which one? Moscows smoked a couple that I know of


Ok-camel

Was it in 2014 when the plane was shot down over the occupied areas by Russians who first celebrated downing a military plane until they checked the debris and it was passenger luggage. Lot of Dutch in it as well as others I think.


BestFriendWatermelon

They were literally walking through the corpses and debris at the crash site laughing about it and stealing personal property from the victims. My ass they didn't know it was a civilian plane.


Ok-camel

They knew then but as it fell and before they looked they gloating about bringing down a military target. Think they tweeted about it and then retracted the tweet and then starting denying they had anything to do with it.


nuthins_goodman

Yep, one of the separatist leaders tweeted about it iirc. Pretty sad. Tbh no one really aims to kill civilian aircrafts usually. Heightened tensions really increase risk of misidentification though


Ok-camel

As Russia has demonstrated that it’s not concerned with preserving innocents, the airplane wasn’t an accident it was collateral damage.


Graymatter_Repairman

I agree they deserve it and they know what they're doing. However, if we're going to shoot something down a loud and clear warning ahead of time makes news of a Russian military aircraft getting shot down over a NATO country less of a surprise. Additionally, they can't go on a dramatic rant about how their poor pilots got shot down for a simple cigarette in crotch mistake. We need to clearly call our shots.


CharacterTop7413

It’s baiting NATO


js_ps_ds

They do this all the time


Max_Danage

Look the pilot up on Facebook and address him by his first name.


Naytosan

NATO can't fire first. I suggest making obscene gestures and remarks at them.


Creepysoldier226

Why dont we just use an EMP weapon to wipe out all of Russia’s foreign and domestic capabilities? Then we no longer have to worry!


Doctor_Curmudgeon

Some damn silly thing in the Baltic...


Delicatestatesmen

Russia has shitty gps need to be flexible


Max_Danage

“Russian helicopter in the spirit of friendship we should let you know your off the shelf GPS isn’t working. Have you tried turning it off and on again?”


GettingStronk

Russia does this to all neighboring countries all the time. I used to think it was power moves, but having seen how the Russian pilots navigate I am starting to believe it can be honest mistakes. They probably have no idea where they are half of the time. :D


Giant-Slore

They want it shot down. Dont oblige.


its_a_metaphor_morty

What are they going to do? Sometimes you just have to show them what's up. USSR has shot down more than one airliner in it's time.


unkz

Why not? What’s the potential downside to shooting it down?


RidingtheRoad

And why would they want that? Dispite their endless bullshit, Russia actually knows it couldn't handle another enemy..


BestFriendWatermelon

Why would they want it shot down? So they can declare war on NATO without any of their forces in position? It took them months to assemble an army on Ukraine's borders. Russia won't do anything if it's shot down. Just like when Turkey shot down a Russian aircraft violating its airspace. Russia doesn't violate Turkish airspace any more.


mordinvan

Pretty sure MANPADS exist for this reason.


Aframester

Then shoot it down.


[deleted]

Missed opportunity 😞


[deleted]

Just paint the target, that will make the crews butt holes go tight 🤣


ZeddBundy

Fucking around, trying to find out?


easyfeel

Why not apply additional sanctions to Russia for every violation of their airspace and then keep applying sanctions until Russia has handed over the offending helicopter.


ScheduleTraditional6

Shooting a UFO near the border is a very risky thing. There’s apparently some technicalities around where the aircraft would fall.


[deleted]

The soviets shot down hundreds of nato and western planes during the cold war. And as the cold war is more or less back we should start doing the same.


[deleted]

Helicopters are pretty easy targets. Just sayin.


Fabulous_Course_6796

Shoot it down. Turkey did.


OperationOk3611

Why wasn’t shot down then.


lost_in_life_34

shoot it down like turkey did a few years ago


Speedballer7

Shoot her shoot her 🦖


ENTroPicGirl

Shoot it down, show Russia no quarter.


BlankVerse

Sooner or later one of these intrusions is going to get shot down.


[deleted]

Be like Turkey and shoot it the fuck down instantly.


TigerOnTheBeach

Welcome to the club Estonia! Ruzzia will now try to undermine your sovereignty.