Translated material
"Tu" flew in the wrong direction
Russian bomber lifts 24 Japanese fighters into the air
A Russian Tu-95 strategic bomber, according to the NATO classification “Bear,” flew over the Japanese Izu archipelago, which belongs to Tokyo Prefecture, 650 km southwest of the capital of the Land of the Rising Sun. According to the Japanese side, he was in its airspace for about three minutes. The incident occurred on Saturday, February 9, at 7.30 local time (1.30 Moscow time).At a speed of about 800 km per hour, the plane could only, as aviators say, “strike” the border. The Japanese Ministry of Defense claims that the plane was flying from the Sea of Okhotsk in a southern direction - towards the Pacific Ocean. Over the northern part of the island ridge, it suddenly changed course and violated the air border. According to the Japanese, the Russian plane did not respond to Japanese warnings transmitted by radio and headed north to return to Russia along the same route through the Sea of Okhotsk.
A total of 24 Japanese air defense fighters were scrambled from different airfields to intercept the “intruder” from the Hyakuri and Hamamatsu air bases, which, of course, is a bit much - such a number goes beyond the scope of international practice. Moreover, AWACS early warning and guidance aircraft were also scrambled. The Japanese Foreign Ministry immediately expressed an energetic official protest to the Counselor of the Russian Embassy in Tokyo. The document contains a requirement to “prevent the recurrence of such cases.”
Our military remained calm. “On behalf of the Air Force Commander-in-Chief, I am authorized to state that we have nothing to comment on,” said Deputy Commander-in-Chief for Aviation, Lieutenant General Igor Sadofiev, succinctly. “Our strategic aircraft did not violate Japanese airspace.” Representatives of the Far Eastern Separate Army of the Air Force and Air Defense with headquarters in Khabarovsk hastened to declare: there were no plans for unification aviation flights over the weekend.
According to General Sadofiev, Russian military aircraft carried out scheduled air patrol flights in strict accordance with international flight rules over neutral waters. Four long-range Tu-95 strategic bombers carried out a more than ten-hour scheduled flight over the Pacific Ocean. Our “strategists” were accompanied by F-15s of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces and American F-18s from the Nimitz aircraft carrier. At the same time, there is nothing to explore in the place of the alleged violation - there are only bare rocks there.
Let us recall that Russian long-range bombers and strategic missile carriers, at the direction of President Vladimir Putin, have been patrolling remote areas of the world since last summer after a fifteen-year break. During all this time, not a single violation of the airspace of any country, including Japan, was recorded. “We don’t know where this claim came from,” Deputy Commander-in-Chief Sadofyev threw up his hands, “but I know that there were no violations.”
Regarding what happened on Saturday, a senior official at the Russian Embassy in Tokyo said: “We will look into it and decide how to react to this.” There is experience in litigation - in January 2006, Japan accused Russia of violating airspace by an An-27 aircraft of the FSB border service. Russian border guards then pursued the alleged intruder, who eventually fled into Japanese waters. Russia then admitted the violation: our plane, carried away in pursuit, entered Japanese airspace several times for almost half an hour near the island of Hokkaido. The Japanese then officially stated that the circumstances of the incident were “generally clear.”
But this is a rare case when the parties parted ways amicably . Much more often, both the “offender” and the “injured” party stand their ground. The investigation ends inconclusively, leaving a bitter aftertaste for both sides. Suffice it to recall several incidents with Georgia . Meanwhile, as the honored military navigator, reserve colonel Valentin Dudin told Vremya Novostey, the Russians only need to show photographs of the Tu-95 on-board locator screens, and the Japanese - photographs of the ground locator with a marked state border line. At one time, Soviet military aircraft flying to an air base in the Vietnamese town of Cam Ranh (now closed) were often caught by the same Japanese allegedly violating the air border, but the above photographs put everything in its place.