U.S. F-16s came within 20 miles from Russian Su-34s in Syria

Oct 06 2015 - 23 Comments
By David Cenciotti

CBS News was given access to CENTCOM radar image showing U.S. and Russian planes not too far one another: yellow aircraft are Russian,  green ones are American.

Some “close encounters” between U.S. and Russian aircraft operating over Syria have already occurred in the last few days according to Lt. Gen. Charles Brown, commander of the American air campaign in Iraq and Syria, in an interview given to CBS News

U.S. F-16s out of Incirlik, Turkey, first picked up the Russian planes (Su-34s in the animation shown in the video linked below) on their radars. The RuAF jets closed to within 20 miles from the F-16s, a distance where the American pilots could visually identify them by means of their targeting pods.

20 miles away

How the sort-of engagement ended is not specified but according to Lt. Gen. Brown, the Russians have come even closer than that to his unmanned drones.

Click here to watch the CBS News video.

Yesterday, Turkey reported two violations of its airspace by Russian aircraft out of Latakia Syria. Newsworthy, in one of the incident, a Mig-29 (that the RuAF has not deployed to the theater) or a Su-30SM (reports are still contradictory), locked on a Turkish F-16 for more than 5 minutes.

Image credit: CENTCOM / CBS News

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  • Mattias Dahlström

    What is that white line on the map?

    • Yak

      Turkey border, no doubt.

    • the turkish-syrian border?

  • su34

    Considering the distorted (damn those widescreens) heading picture (supposed
    map on centcom radar) is correct, then at least somebody is heavily lacking
    geographic skills. If you approximately pinpoint the depicted positions
    of the nearest su34, and f16 on a real undistorted map, you’ll get about
    120km (that’s 74miles for those metric challenged).
    Just slapping a “20 miles” caption on a screen still doesn’t change reality.
    su34: between Zaghbeh – Umm Muwaylat
    f16: between Akhtarin – Sousian

    • cencio4

      The map is not supposed to show the exact moment when the two parties came within 20 miles each other.
      The General said the closed to 20 miles but we don’t know for sure when the released CENTCOM image was taken.

  • BushidoBlade

    I’m pretty sure the U.S. and their NATO lackeys didn’t get permission from the internationally recognized legitimate sovereign government of Syria for permission to overfly their country and into their airspace, but Russia did.

    • Gio Pí

      The current Syrian govt will not be around much longer, sorry.

      • John Whitehot

        6 months and it’s still around

        • Gio Pí

          cool story

    • E1-Kabong

      LOL!

      Your Russian pals INVADED the Ukraine.

      What’s your excuse for that?

      • BushidoBlade

        The CIA and State Department overthrew a democratically elected government and replaced them with their lackey who was throwing out the welcome mat for NATO to move into Ukraine and the former Soviet naval bases in Crimea. You get what you play for.

    • Uniform223

      Yet Syria isn’t really doing ANYTHING to stop “US and their NATO” lackeys are they?

  • BushidoBlade

    Are their buggy avionics and weapon control systems up to the task?

    • Uniform223

      Here is what a USAF general said about the Raptor’s “buggy avionics and weapon systems” …

      + “The F-22s make other U.S. aircraft more survivable. It really is enabling all the rest of the team,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told The Associated Press. “Perhaps this is a good model to think about for the future.”

      + “Their mission is getting the bombs on target, on time, finding the right target and minimizing collateral damage,” said Cameron. “The more time they have to focus on that part of the mission, the more successful we’re going to be in the long run. So, the F-22 … it’s another eye in the sky, if you will, to help them focus on the mission.”

      + “The greatest capability the F-22 brings is its integrated avionics, its’ fused avionics that facilitate situational awareness,” Harrigian said. “It is not just for the pilot in the airplane, but really for the entire package that is going to execute the mission.”

      here is an article about the F-22 from this very site…

      http://theaviationist.com/2015/08/15/f-22-kinetic-situational-awareness/

      If anything F-22s are acting more like forward ISR asset and force multiplier elements to other friendly assets in the region…

      seems like the Raptor’s “buggy avionics” aren’t buggy at all. Also here is the F-22’s “wonky” weapon systems…
      (skip to time index 4:22)

    • E1-Kabong

      Are the low grade, mediocre Russian jets ready for a spanking?

  • E1-Kabong

    Prove it.

    Let’s see where you read that.

  • E1-Kabong
    • PeaceYo

      You dont like the truth do you?

      • nikoliy

        I don’t always approve of his ideas but you have to admit he is an excellent and entertaining speaker.

  • E1-Kabong

    So what?

    Seems like you believe the Russians can magically do more than what reality shows…

    http://www.popularmechanics.com/military/navy-ships/a16623/failure-to-launch-watch-a-russian-anti-submarine-missile-not-do-its-job/

    • twistedneck

      Don’t be fooled, the Russian area denial tech is up to the task. Look at our carrier group they have backed way off from the area where the Moskova has started patrols. That sizzler missle is flat out wicked. However, our PAC-3, RIM 174A (SM-6) can handle that threat pretty easily as show against the new GQM-163 Coyote.

  • BushidoBlade

    They obviously didn’t drop many bombs on them because the Russians sure are finding a lot of targets of opportunity that the U.S. missed.

  • twistedneck

    Kabong! I wish that was the case.. When Israel attacked the Syrian reactor it was an easy job, mostly due to excellent spy craft and surprise – i.e. great leadership and planning. Desert storm was not a contest, there were no Russian or top notch East block pilots flying against us. Our gusy kicked huge ass! look at the F15!! but that’s not peer – peer .. that does not teach us what is wrong with our force. kinda like this entire war in the middle east for the last 12yrs.. UNTIL NOW.

    The US and Russia get to test out a little bit more tech on each other and get the bugs out – works both ways, just like what is happening in Ukraine. What did we find there? that our radio equipment and software tactics were not up to snuff.. i have friends in SIGINT, they know their shit – but the freakin Malware division of the Russian ground force is something new, its peer peer battle tech fuzzed the f’n hell out of our systems (we quickly learned hard lessons and are now fully offensive again) You need peer peer to feel how good your enemy is, and the Red’s have always been THE enemy to the USA, and a damn capable one. Respect your enemy.

    what’s interesting about S300 and S400 is that they are probably the best tech the soviets have outside of their new SLBM Bulava. and they are locking up our planes just as easily as we do theirs.. except the F22 – that’s why they keep buzzing for visual confirmation, just incase they finally can spot the 22.

    The 40N6 missile is a mach 7 beast with NO EQUAL. its something amazing. we can shoot it down with the right SM6, or even small Rolling airframe missiles – the Evolved Sea Sparrow.. but barely and we had to build our own drone to find out.

    Now that