Wars have happened because somebody made a mistake in the heat of the moment. The aggressive behavior by the Russians suggests to me that they don't really care if war accidentally breaks out at this point. If the destroyer fired on the jets and damaged or downed one, well the Russians are in control of that situation because they can choose not to go to war in response. What happens if one of those pilots loses control of his ship and kamikazes the destroyer? No control there.
Im sure if the Ruskie jet hit the Destroyer Obama would apologize to the Russians for having the destroyer get in the way of the jet.
Lol, the official White House response called the pilots actions "unprofessional". Way to take the hard stance, President Gay Crackhead!
Now if that Commander had ordered his fire control radar turned on and tracked those planes with the Phalanx Gatling Guns, that would have been an appropriate response. Keep in mind we have no business in the Baltic Sea in the first place. I doubt if you'll ever see Russian Destroyers in the GOM.
There has been recent build up of Russian naval activity in the Baltic, granted the Baltic's are Russia's backyard (not ours). And still we have NATO allies that have identified concerns of the Russian naval activities near their border. http://www.defensenews.com/story/de...-poland-submarine-high-north-crimea/25368547/ Sweden and Denmark both were looking for submarines in their territorial waters Sept and Oct 2014 Below are a list of NATO alliance members bordering Baltic sea Denmark Estonia Germany Latvia Lithuania Poland
Geographically (technically), Russia's coastline on the Baltic Sea is miniscule compared to the United States' Gulf of Mexico coastline and outside of the exclave Kaliningrad (which they took from Germany), the Russian Baltic Sea coastline has been shunted to the far eastern reaches (technically, the Gulf of Finland) with the emergence of the Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all of whom are members of NATO. And, the vast majority of countries bordering the Baltic Sea are NATO member states. As for the Gulf of Mexico, outside of maybe Cuba(?) what Russian-affiliated military treaties are in place with any Gulf countries? .....this without mentioning President Obama restoring diplomatic relations with Habana. The only thing worrisome here would be if John Kasich were Commander-in-Chief (or if these Russian topgun douches were to push the envelope). Wonder who (if anyone) gave them the ok to buzz the ship. THE UNITED STATES 1,600+ MILE GULF OF MEXICO COASTLINE: night-and-day difference
Swedish people were so critical of their countries inability to identify foreign submarines. That picture was one of their best pieces of evidence smh. They were unable to ever actually confirm foreign submarine was in their waters. A year later they actually said it was a normal fishing boat. This article is pretty funny though: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/21/sweden-cold-war-submarine-hunt-russia-vessel-military Denmark and Sweden both have powerful navy's and air power in the Baltic though
My point was that OUR reaction to one of their planes hitting our destroyer if the pilot made an error or there was a mechanical failure was unpredictable from their point of view. That leads me to believe that Russia doesn't really care if war breaks out accidentally at this point. They've likely gamed it out and think they'll come out ahead. Putin likely thinks that a dust up with the US would solidify his domestic and international standing instead of hurting it. He might be wrong on that but there are many more low hanging fruit dangling in front of the Russians at this point. They could drive into the Baltic States and Ukraine and Georgia and then negotiate a better position than they're in as the end point of the war. Nobody thinks a nuclear war is going to break out in a regional conflict that is fairly localized. We likely wouldn't use tac nukes to blunt a Russian invasion of Eastern Europe and there's no way we're getting enough force into Russia proper to force them to use nukes. Even if we did launch two spearheads towards Moscow and the Caucasus the Russians would likely just do what every Russian army has done in response and retreat in front of it and let winter manage the problem for them.
Was it that long ago that Soviet Warships made port calls in Cuba on occasion? I seem to remember us shadowing them and not being very happy about it although our pilots are far more disciplined. I don't think Russia considers the Baltic any different than we consider the GOM. It wasn't that long ago that most of the territory bordering the eastern and southern ends of the Baltic were Warsaw Pact Nations. I also think it was an unnecessary provocation to include those nations into NATO. We didn't need them and certainly didn't need to embarrass the fledgling Russian Republic any further. I agree that those Pilots actions were probably not sanctioned as Putin is a careful man that doesn't act unless he already knows the outcome. Now given that there's already been 2 Russian fighter jets shot down by a NATO member state, I'm just glad we had a Commander on the scene that used good judgement.
Glad that we had a cool hand at the wheel as well. At the same time, buzzing the U.S. ship to the extent that it has to hold off refueling a Polish helicopter on deck sorts of suggests there might've been more to it than Russia's coy "what's the big deal?" response (memo to Poland?). As for those former Warsaw Pact Baltic States, that was then, this is now and to be truthful Cman, worrying about an antagonistic prick like Russia saving face was/is the least of my concerns. As for Cuba, without dwelling on not-so-ancient "nukes 90 mi. from Miami" history nor Nikki Khrushev's "bury us" shoe-banging, it is interesting to note that the Cubans in 2014 allowed them to reopen a Soviet-era spy headquarters in Lourdes (just south of Havana) in exchange for some debt cancellation. As for the buzzing, nobody wants to start an incident over what looks to be the showy "in your face" act of a nouveau riche punk looking to flash their newly-minted military play toys. That said, how may passes do they get?
That's why I said they needed to "paint" that Jet with fire control radar and track his ass with the Phalanx. If necessary fire across his path.
Wait wut? Trump would apologize to the Russians then he would suck Putin's cock and it would be over. Trump and Putin are buddies. Dude, the Russians invade everyone's airspace. They DGAF. That whole thing with Turkey was because Turkey didn't GAF and shot their asses down. The Russians are running out of money for these shenanigans. Of course Putin isn't, all of his stolen money is safely stored somewhere else.
