Aircraft Interception - Three intercepts in March and April are "not necessarily a spike out of historical norms," Air Force Gen. Terrence O'Shaughnessy, commander of NORAD and US Northern Command, told reporters on April 21, describing the flights as part of a "continuous effort" by Russia to "probe and check and see our responses."
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Aircraft Interception
Swayne is an editor at Boldmethod, certified flight instructor, and a First Officer on the Boeing 757/767 for a Major US Carrier. He graduated as an aviation major from the University of North Dakota in 2018, holds a PIC Type Rating for Cessna Citation Jets (CE-525), is a former pilot for Mokulele Airlines, and flew Embraer 145s at the beginning of his airline career.
Swayne Martin
Swayne is an author of articles, quizzes and lists on Boldmethod every week. You can reach Swayne at swayne@boldmethod.com, and follow his flying adventures on his YouTube Channel. I recently read this list of errors in the film Top Gun.
The list is long and fairly well done, but there is one I realized when thinking about that movie and that is Maverick may have actually caused an international incident at the start of the film that precipitated into the climactic dogfight at the end.
That is, they intercepted the MiGs at the beginning of the film in an unprofessional and hostile manner which is not used when intercepting another aircraft over international waters. Just a few weeks ago, the French Air Force posted air-to-air footage of intercept procedures.
While you should check out the full video, we've skipped to the portion showing what it looks like when a French Dassault Rafale intercepts a turboprop Kodiak. The first two of 54 F-35s landed at Eielson on April 21. The remaining jets will arrive by December 2021, making Alaska the state with the highest concentration of "combat-coded, fifth-generation fighter aircraft," the Air Force said.
Firstheres What It Looks Like
"The most recent [intercept], where we were in ADIZ, was just a really incredible experience," Meyer said. "It's night, and you can see the Northern Lights above us as we're intercepting these Russian aircraft, and it was just a really incredible and unique experience, probably one of my coolest moments flying to this day."
An F-15 Eagle dispatched by NORAD intercepted the pilot, who was not talking to ATC at the time. The plane landed at a Sussex County airport, where it was surrounded by police shortly after exiting the runway.
"We always have somebody who is ready to go in the event that we get the call," said 1st Lt. Brett Meyer, an F-22 pilot with the 90th Fighter Squadron, part of the 3rd Operations Group under the 3rd Wing.
In real life this is only the case if the aircraft both have filed a flight plan and are equipped with a transponder and there is both a primary radar, which bounces radio waves at the aircraft, a secondary radar, which interrogates the aircraft transponder.
Procedures For Interception Of Civilian Aircraft In Real Life
Note that for civilian aircraft the transponder will only supply a four digit identity that the pilot has gotten from air traffic control and sometimes the altitude, which will be given in 100 feet intervals. Soviet aircraft routinely approached US carrier battle groups during the Cold War, in some cases coming within 1/2 mile from the battle group.
They were intercepted on a regular basis but never in such an aggressive manner as is shown in Top Gun. Unless said Soviet aircraft were acting in a provocative manner with posed a direct threat to the ship or the air wing aircraft, there really wasn't much you could do as you were in international waters and subject to international law.
Doing otherwise would have been an act of war. There is a set of standard procedures defined by ICAO that includes radio communication and visual signals both for night and day. There are procedures both for the intercepting aircraft and for the intercepted aircraft.
These are defined in annex 2 to the convention on international civil aviation, Rules of the air, and are repeated in the Aeronautical information publication (AIP) for each country in section ENR 1.12, Interception of civilian aircraft.
Military Aircraft
Note that there might be some national differences. Sometimes the F-14s were tasked with (really, allowed to) close with the Bear to "gather intelligence". This resulted in lots of great pictures. You'll note that usually the F-14s in those didn't carry Sparrow or Phoenix missiles so they'd constitute less of a threat while closing (there were exceptions, though).
The Bear is about the size of a B-52, and depending on the day's plan you could come within a couple (Bear) wingspans of one. This in theory was risky (they had a rear gunner who's arc of fire you were to avoid) and took it out of your missile envelope, but you did have a gun...
An older primary radar would basically only report the position of an aircraft and nothing else. Sometimes there would be a height finding radar co-located with the primary radar, but the height finding radar could only be used to find the altitude of one aircraft at a time.
Newer primary radars will often report both the position and the approximate altitude. So am I wrong in this assessment? Is the intercept of an unknown aircraft as shown in the movie uncalled for and hostile to the MiG pilots who were only engaged in their own maneuvers over international waters?
Intercepting Aircraft
Can anybody shed further light as to how the USN would professionally intercept a bogey over international waters? There is of course also the case of military aircraft intercepting other military aircraft. During the Cold War many interceptions of intelligence, surveillance and spying aircraft from both the western and eastern bloc where made.
Interceptions where also sometimes made to redirect aircraft that actually tried to probe the opponents airspace. And of course there is interception to shoot down enemy aircraft. "I've been flying fighters for almost 20 years, and I've flown all around the world. I've flown 500 combat hours in two different wars, and flying in the Arctic is uniquely challenging compared to all of the other experiences that
I've had," Krellner said. In peacetime, the TU-95 Bear bombers still needed to be intercepted. That practice, at least in the north Atlantic, was usually for one of a pair of F-14s to fly directly towards the intercept point and well above it, while the other was several miles in trail and on the side that would be to the
rear of the bomber(s) after intercept. The first would overfly and make a descending turn to end up about a mile in trail, holding position there while the second did the same thing. This ensured that (depending on ROE) weapons could always be directed at the bomber by one or the other F-14's throughout the approach.
Getting To Know Your Aircraft
The intercepting aircraft should try to contact the intercepted aircraft using 121.5 MHz, using the call signs Interceptor
Meyer said the intercepts weren't meant to be covert, describing them as "overt strategic messages, showcasing not only to our adversaries but also our allies that we stand ready 24/7, 365 ... and show that we are capable and ready
to defend the homeland." Meyer said he could not speak to specific Russian missions but echoed O'Shaughnessy by describing them as "part of an ongoing probe from Russia" for "gauging our response and our ability to go out and meet them."
"Flying is inherently unforgiving, and the vast distances that we deal with, with extremes in weather [and] temperature" in the Arctic magnify that, Krellner added. "We step up our professionalism a little bit every time we strap on the jet to fly in the Arctic because of those inherently challenging conditions."
Civilian Aircraft
Aircraft interceptions are a common occurrence in international airspace but there are specific procedures involved and protocol used to avoid an international incident. Typically a two ship flight will maneuver alongside an unknown aircraft to visually identify it.
Any additional actions ie creating a collision hazard from a head on cross or hard maneuvering onto an aircraft's six then tracking it with a fire control radar, as Maverick does at the start of the movie can be interpreted as a hostile act and could actually warrant use
of force. Therefore Maverick may be the aggressor here and the second MiG maneuvering for a shot at Cougar and lighting up his F-14 with its fire control radar would be a reasonable response to the F-14 two ship's aggressive act over international waters.
"Personally I'm excited for the opportunity to integrate with them and continue to train and hone our ability to fly fifth-gen aircraft together," Meyer said. "It's going to be a really unique experience being up here in Alaska, with how many fifth-gen aircraft we're going to have in the area. It's going to be some of the best training opportunities that we'll have."
Video Cessna Intercepted By Air Force F-
Aircraft interception is when one aircraft moves up to another aircraft. Most often this relates to when a military aircraft is intercepting a civilian aircraft that is entering national airspace without a filed flight plan, entering restricted or prohibited airspace through misnavigation, aircraft having communication failures or aircraft that cannot otherwise be identified.
For those cases there are internationally standardized procedures. "First thing, you're going to get what we call the claxon," Meyer told Insider on Friday. "You're going to get a call saying, 'Hey, this is what the mission is. This is what we need you to go do.'
And from there it's a scramble down to your jet to get started and get airborne." Russian Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft entered the Alaskan ADIZ over the Beaufort Sea on March 9 and on March 14 — on the latter occasion, a pair of them flew near a US submarine exercise in the Arctic.
In both cases, F-22s escorted the Russian aircraft the entire time they were in the ADIZ. It's "a mission that we are constantly training for and we're ready for all the time, but to actually go out and execute it, see all of the pieces come together before your eyes, it's really awe-inspiring," Meyer said.
Phase I
"Beyond that, you're just focused on staying alert, staying present, and ready the entire time that you're out there." Getting to know your aircraft is part of the process to acquire skills used when intercepting aircraft.
Military pilots have access to a flight manual that almost always includes climb schedules and charts for optimum climb (usually for both fastest climb and fuel efficient climb), time to altitude, fuel to altitude and endurance for different mission profiles.
By taking notes you might develop rules of thumb for those performance data. The intercepting aircraft are in touch with their command and control, which "has a direct line to the NORAD commanders," who provide "guidance on what we're going to be going out and executing that day, all as part of our broader NORAD
mission of defending the homeland," Meyer added. "The focus is typically on the F-22, but this is a huge team effort," Meyer said. "We're getting the call, but we also have tankers that are getting airborne. We also have AWACS E-3 surveillance aircraft getting airborne."
While interception of civilian aircraft is a last resort, interception is often the only means available to identify an aircraft that has not filed a flight plan and/or has no transponder and cannot be contacted. Apart from identification interception is as well often the only means to redirect an aircraft that is straying into limited airspace or is believed to be involved in illegal activities.
One of ForeFlight's most powerful features on its mobile app for pilots is called the "profile view." For Pro level subscribers, airspace is depicted vertically along your route of flight. This feature combines terrain, obstacles, and airspace along your route into a single profile view.
It enhances your situational awareness, giving you a quick way to double-check that your altitude and route won't interfere with tower controlled or restricted airspace. If you think this can't happen to you, just last week a C172 Skyhawk was intercepted after it violated a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) over the Trump National Golf Course.
Click here to read the full news article. NORAD reported the first such Russian flight of 2020 at the end of January, when two Tu-160 Blackjack bombers flew into the Canadian ADIZ, although NORAD aircraft do not appear to have intercepted them.
(NORAD is a binational agreement that divides the region into Alaskan, Continental US, and Canadian sections, monitored by their respective authorities.)
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