Shooting scandal

The joint Russian-Chinese flight over the Japanese Sea almost ended in armed conflict

This week in Beijing, a White Book on National Defense was published, which confirms that China is not included with anyone in an alliance or a military bloc, but will maintain interaction with the armies of other states in order to protect the universal world and counteract American expansionism and hegemonism. It was emphasized that China and Russia are building military cooperation. In particular, on July 23, the first joint patrol of the pair of Chinese distant n-6 bombers and a pair of Russian strategic Tu-95ms over the Japanese and East Chinese seas for the “joint protection of strategic stability on a global scale”, as stated in Beijing, took place. The maneuvers began without preliminary announcements, completely unexpectedly for the South Korean and Japanese military, and in the course of the case there was an extremely unpleasant international shooting incident.

H-6 is a license copy of the old Soviet reactive bomber Tu-16, which has been produced in the PRC since the end of the fifties. A very reliable car, in the Russian Federation flew until 1994, and in the PRC is still modernized. And although the flight range is clearly not enough, it is used as a strategic bomber to lack the best. In the early 2000s from Ukraine to Iran and the PRC, up to 20 Soviet strategic winged missiles of high-range X-55 strategic missiles without standard nuclear warheads were illegally transported.

Almost all people associated with the organization of this transaction were later killed or died under mysterious circumstances.

In Beijing, any complicity was denied, but soon the production of unlicensed copies of the X-55 was established, which are now equipped with the H-6.

Early in the morning of July 23, a couple of Chinese N-6, accompanied by KJ-2000 (Chinese DRLO-distant radar detection-on the IL-76TD base) from the Yellow Sea entered the so-called identification zone of South Korea (Korea Air Defense Identification Zone-Kadiz), which was established in 1951 a year and significantly expanded in 2013 in response to similar actions by the PRC, which established a number of such zones off its coast. In theory, foreign aircraft should be declared Korean air traffic controllers about their entry into this zone, but neither the Chinese nor the Russians do this. According to the United Committee of the Chiefs of Staff of the Republic of Korea, only from the beginning of this year, Chinese military aircraft violated the self -proclaimed Kadiz 25 times, and Russian - 13 times. Each time, Koreans raised just in case fighters, but this was limited - until July 23.

A pair of Russian strategic missile carriers Tu-95MS flew to Korea from the side of the Japanese Sea. Russian and Chinese planes formed a joint air group and continued to patrol first over the Japanese sea, and then went south towards Okinawa, flew again through Kadiz. Korean chiefs did not understand what was happening, did not know,

Why the grouping of Russian and Chinese combat aircraft was deployed next to Korea, and, obviously, nervous, since both H-6 and Tu-95ms are carriers of nuclear weapons, which in principle could be aboard.

And here, in 9.09 local time (3.09 in Moscow), from the side of the Japanese Sea, the Russian A-50 aircraft flew into Kadiz and immediately entered the already sovereign airspace near a group of small islands and rocks, which Europeans call Liancurt Rocks, Koreans-TOCE, and the Japanese-Takeshima. The islands are controlled by Korea, but both Japan and the DPRK apply for them.

According to the South Korean command, the A-50 was only 3 minutes in the sovereign airspace, but the Korean F-15K and KF-16 fighters were already in the air, and one of them opened a warning fire, releasing 80 airplane shells. Korean fighters shot up to 10 signaling missiles or heat traps. The Koreans did not have a radio contact with the crew.

At 9.15 , the A-50 flew out of Kadiz, but at 9.33 again, according to the Koreans, flew 4 minutes into a sovereign airspace. The Koreans again opened a warning fire and managed to shoot up to 280 combat charges.

At 9.56, the Russian A-50 finally left Kadiz, and after that the diplomatic conflict began. Mutual notes of protest followed.

The commander of the distant aviation of the VKS, Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash, said that “the crews strictly withstanding a given flight mode” and there was no violation of the sovereign airspace, and Russia does not recognize Kadiz. According to Kobylash, Korean fighters shot the heat traps and unsuccessfully tried to prevent patrols, but did not open any warning fire, but "if the Russian pilots determined such a threat for themselves, then an immediate adequate answer would follow."

Perhaps, in the radiance of the morning sun at a high altitude, the A-50 crew simply did not see the course warning fire, but the Koreans did not shoot to defeat. By the way, in the air above the Japanese sea were Russian fighters and interceptors, potentially ready to “give an adequate answer”, which could develop into a serious armed conflict.

Perhaps the Kobilash subordinates really completed the flight task without violating anything: they flew south first with the Chinese H-6, then independently even further beyond Okinawa, where they went to the position of a large-range cruise missiles on Guam (the most important American base in the region), before turning home. But the A-50, made on the basis of the transport IL-76, is not an airplane of long-range aviation. The main airfield of aircraft of this type is Ivanovo-Severs, where the Center for combat use and retraining of the flight train (VKS) is located. Perhaps the A-50 crew was not prepared enough and mistakenly flew into the Korean airspace.

Moscow is trying to maintain the most close political and economic relations with South Korea, President Vladimir Putin often meets with President Moon Zhe. Any serious conflict with Seoul would cause serious damage to strategic plans for the development of the Far East and the Arctic. For example, the Zvezda Super -Belongs in the city of Bolshoi Kamorsky Territory, who was conceived by Igor Sechin, is rebuilt with the investment of unremarkable tools to begin to produce tankers, gas carriers, drilling platforms and even nuclear superfluids of the Leader type, and all in cooperation with South Korea. And then there is almost a war out of the blue that can destroy such a business.

Almost simultaneously, the northern Koreans captured the Russian fishing vessel of Sianhailin-8 with 17 sailors.

It turned out completely stupid: the conflict immediately with both Korea.

It seems that, by the aggregate of reasons, it was decided to hand back and, if possible, extinguish the conflict with Seoul. Of course, the Russian authorities did not apologize, but seemed to express “regret” due to the fact that a “technical mistake” could happen, and promised an investigation.

This time everyone was very lucky that the warning fire did not seem to notice that no one was injured and that it was Korean fighters, and not from any NATO country. In a word, it carried.