Beriev A-50, Ilyushin Il-22, Sukhoi Su-24, Sukhoi Su-27, Sukhoi Su-34 and Tupolev Tu-160 aircraft, were photographed by the Finnish Hornets. First appearance of a Blackjack over the Baltic.
The Finnish Air Force has been quite busy lately intercepting and escorting Russian military aircraft flying in international airspace, over the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, in the vicinity of Finland’s airspace.
For instance, on June 14 and 15, several air assets, including Beriev A-50, Ilyushin Il-22, Sukhoi Su-24, Sukhoi Su-27, Sukhoi Su-34 and Tupolev Tu-160 aircraft, flew close to the Finnish airspace, forcing the Finnish Air Force to scramble its F/A-18 Hornet on QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) in order to intercept the Russian aircraft.
The photographs in this post were taken by the Finnish F/A-18 pilots during such intercept missions.
Beriev A-50 (Finnish Air Force)
An Il-22 escorted by a Su-27 Flanker (Finnish Air Force)
A pair of Fencers shadowed by a Finnish F/A-18 Hornet (Finnish Air Force)
An interesting close encounter has just taken place over the Baltic Sea.
A Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jet was instructed to intercept a US B-52 Stratofortress over the Baltic Sea earlier today.
The USAF strategic bomber “was flying along the Russian border,” the Russian Defense Ministry reported according to RT.
“Russia’s air defense detected the aircraft on Tuesday morning at around 7:00 GMT, the statement said. The Su-27 of the Russian Baltic Fleet was deployed in response and shadowed the American aircraft after identifying it, as the bomber was flying in neutral airspace over the Baltic Sea along the border, the ministry said.”
Where the interception took place it’s not clear at the time of writing. Most probably, the American Buff was flying in international airspace off Kaliningrad Oblast, where most of these “close encounters” have taken place in the recent years.
Some of these have been particularly dangerous, as the Russian combat planes have aggressively maneuvered close to (or even barrel rolled over) the U.S. spyplanes (mostly RC-135s) they were shadowing. This is the first time, at least in the last few years, that a Russian plane performs a VID (Visual Identification) run on a B-52 bomber.
The Stratofortress involved in the intercept must have been one of the three B-52Hs belonging to the 2nd BW (Bomb Wing) from Barksdale AFB, Louisiana,deployed to Royal Air Force Fairford, United Kingdom, to support various exercises, including BALTOPS and Saber Strike, throughout northern Europe during the month of June.
The Finnish Ministry of Defense has released a photo of an armed Russian Flanker that possibly violated Finland’s sovereign airspace.
In the last few years we have reported several close encounters between Russian and NATO or allied aircraft in the Baltic region.
However, all these encounters occurred more or less in accordance with a standard “script”: the Russian aircraft, approaching or skirting some sovereign airspace, caused the fighter jets in QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) to scramble to perform a VID (Visual Identification) and take some cool shots like those we have published here in the past.
And, above all, the Russians almost always remained in international airspace.
Until today.
Here’s the official statement of the Finnish Ministry of Defense:
A possible violation of Finnish airspace by a Russian SU-27 fighter has been detected in the Gulf of Finland south of Porvoo on Thursday October 6th at about 16.43 pm.
The suspected violation of Finnish airspace continued approximately one minute, and sided Finnish airspace for about 13 kilometers at a maximum of about one kilometer depth.
The Air Force conducted an identification flight.
The Finnish Border Guard will investigate the matter.
The “possible violation” must have been determined by means of primary radar returns and probably occurred before the Su-27 was intercepted by the Finnish F/A-18 Hornets.
Although close encounters with “Ivan” are nothing special, a real airspace violation is something much more rare (and interesting.)
Two Ukrainian Air Force Su-27 Flankers and one accompanying Il-76 have been among the highlights of the Malta International Airshow. And here some really cool shots of such interesting aircraft.
Malta hosted the traditional airshow over the last weekend.
Even though bad weather conditions forced the organization to cancel the aerial display over Smart City on Sunday Sept. 25, the arrival of the participants as well as the Saturday’s show provided an opportunity to take some cool shots of the most interesting aircraft that visited Malta airport in Luqa for the event.
Indeed, a Su-27 and a Su-27UB (58 BLUE and 71 BLUE), supported by an Il-76 Candid landed at the Maltese airport on Sept. 22: the Ukrainian trio arrived in style, performing a low passage over the runway before coming to landing.
On Friday Sept. 23, some photographers were given the opportunity to get some shots of the aircraft at night. Our contributor Estelle Calleja was among them and took the stunning shots you can find in this post.
The two-seater Su-27UB took part in the late afternoon flying segment over Smart City with a solo display that included release of flares. This was the first time the airshow took place over the area.
Both aircraft left Malta on Monday Sept. 26. The two Flankers performed a formation takeoff for runway 05, followed by a right hand turn and a low pass to bid farewell to Malta after an attendance that will be long remembered.
Stay tuned for a new article about all the other highlights of the air show that we will publish in the next few days!
It’s not a good period for military aerobatic teams.
A Su-27 Flanker belonging to the Russian Knights aerobatic team crashed on Jun. 9 in Russia, killing the pilot, TASS news agency reported.
According to the first reports, the jet crashed in a forest located about 2 km from the village of Muranovo, in western Russia, after taking part with the rest of the aerobatic team to a flyover of the nearby monument to aviators in Ashukino, a ceremony attended by Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov and Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Air Force Viktor Bondarev.
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