S. Korea fires warning shots: Russia, Chinese military planes enters airspace

South Korea has reportedly fired warning shots after both China and Russia violated their airspace, South Korea's Defense Ministry said and was reported by the Associated Press.

The South Korean Defense Ministry reported that  "multiple Russian military planes violated the South Korean airspace off its east coast" and "Chinese military planes also intruded into South Korea’s aerial identification zone."

As a result of the violation, South Korea scrambled fighter jets which fired the warning shots.

Reuters reported that the incident came as North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un "inspected a large newly built submarine, state news agency KCNA reported on Tuesday, potentially signalling continued development of a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) program," .

"The operational capacity of a submarine is an important component in national defense of our country bounded on its east and west by sea," Kim reportedly said.

Ankit Panda, a senior fellow at the U.S.-based Federation of American Scientists discussed the significance of the submarine. 

"We can clearly see that it is a massive submarine — much larger than the existing one that's been well known since 2014. 

"What I find significant about the political messaging here is that this is the first time since a February 2018 military parade that he has inspected a military system clearly designed to carry and deliver nuclear weapons. I take that as an ominous signal that we should be taking Kim Jong Un's end-of-year deadline for the implementation of a change in U.S. policy with the utmost seriousness."

Luckily, President Trump said that he likes Kim and Kim likes him, so we have nothing to worry about. Right?

This is a developing situation--stay tuned.

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USAF jets intercept 2 Russian bombers off Alaska coast

Two U.S. Air Force stealth fighter jets intercepted a pair of nuclear-capable Russian bombers Friday morning off the coast of Alaska A NORAD spokesman told Fox News. [Sarah Palin said she could see the action from her house--just kidding.]

The bombers, two Tupolev Tu-95 "Bear" aircraft, were the first of its kind in a little over a year to approach close to U.S. territory, nearing over Alaska's west coast, about 55 miles from the shore. To be clear, they remained over international airspace, so no harm, no foul.

However, the zone they entered is a U.S. air-defense identification zone (ADIZ), which is defined as airspace extending about 200 miles from the nation's coastline.

We greeted the bombers with two F-22s and stayed with them until they left the ADIZ along the Aleutian Islands, heading west. They did at no time enter North American sovereign airspace.

The Russian "Bears" date back to the 1950s. [I've encountered them flying over the USS Independence CVA-62 heading toward the Mediterranean during the Vietnam War. We greeted them with F-4 Phantoms and the Bear went on its merry way.] These giant birds were met with our F-22s around 10:00 a.m. EDT.

The Tupolev Tu-95 is a huge, four-engine turboprop, and a strategic bomber and missile platform. It was first flown in 1952, entered Soviet service in 1956 and is expected to remain in service until 2040. 

It is the only propeller-powered strategic bomber still in operation, and is one of the loudest monsters in the sky due to the fact that the propeller tips rotate faster than the speed of sound.

Earlier this month, a Russian fighter jet buzzed a U.S.N. reconnaissance plane in the Baltic Sea. The Sukhoi Su-27 jet reportedly came within 20 feet of the American P-8 in international space. We called their maneuver "unprofessional," but luckily the Su-27 pilot was professional enough not to cause an air traffic accident.

Today is the 60th anniversary of NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command that monitors all air activity coming from within and outside North American airspace.

Happy anniversary!


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Iran flexes its mouth, again

There is nothing in the Koran that forbids foreign planes from flying in international airspace.  But Iran, nevertheless, has threatened to shoot down two U.S. Navy surveillance aircraft that have done just that. Our military has broken no international laws but Iran continues to provoke us.

The two planes, a Navy P-8 Poseidon and an EP-3 Eries admittedly flew close to Iranian territory, but they were clearly within international air over the Persian Gulf this weekend.

On September 10th the Poseidon with a crew of nine, and the Eries with a crew of two dozen, were flying a reconnaissance mission 13 miles off the coast of Iran, in the Strait of Hormuz and Gulf of Oman. International waters extends 12 miles and we were within our right to be there.

During the flight, Iranian military warned both aircraft to change course or risk getting shot down.

Our planes ignored the warning and continued to fly in international airspace. "We wanted to test the Iranian reaction," a US official told the media when asked about why the jets came so close to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

"It's one thing to tell someone to get off your lawn, but we weren't on their lawn," the official said. "Anytime you threaten to shoot someone down, it's not considered professional."

Another official said the incident wasn't considered "unsafe" [for him] because there were no Iranian missile launchers in the area, according to the latest intelligence reports.

This is just the latest incident whereby Iran has harassed us, but this time we used our two 'birds' to flip them the bird.

Last month, Iranian vessels harassed US Navy warships in the Persian Gulf at least 5 times. In one case the US fired 3 warning shots by a US Navy coastal patrol craft, when an Iranian vessel ignored repeated radio calls to change course. Another incident was when an Iranian craft stopped 100 yards from the bow of a US Navy ship forcing it to take evasive action.

A senior Iranian military commander dismissed our claims that his vessels harassed our ships in the Persian Gulf, saying his nation acted in accordance with internationally recognized maritime law, sounding a bit like a Clinton campaign official.

"Iranian boats continue to act based on defined standards and are well aware of the international laws and regulations, so the claims are not only untrue, but stem from their fear of the power of Iran's soldiers," claimed Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of staff of Iran's armed forces.

It is believed that if the United States had a president who was not Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, the chances are excellent that incidents such as these would dramatically decrease.



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