I stopped WW3...............in 2013.............................which is what no one believes........b/c people just lie...........you people are naive......
Warplanes from four countries face off in Asian confrontation
Current Time 1:03
/
Duration Time 2:29
Seoul (CNN)Warplanes
from four countries faced off Tuesday in a chaotic and unprecedented
confrontation above a small, disputed island off the coast of South
Korea and Japan.
South
Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a statement claiming they had
fired more than 300 warning shots at a Russian A-50 command and control
military aircraft early Tuesday morning after it had twice violated the
country's airspace, the first such incident between the countries.
Moscow
furiously denied Seoul's account of the encounter, claiming that South
Korean military jets had dangerously intercepted two of its bombers
during a planned flight over neutral waters.
But
in a statement Tuesday afternoon, Japan's Ministry of Defense backed up
South Korea's claims, saying the A-50 had flown over the islands and
that Tokyo had scrambled fighters to intercept.
In
a further complication, both South Korea and Japan said that two
Chinese H-6 bombers had joined the Russian military aircraft on sorties
through the region as well.
The
confrontation took place over disputed islands in the East Sea, also
known as the Sea of Japan, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The two, small islands, known to the Koreans as Dokdo and to the Japanese as Takeshima, are claimed by both countries.
What
triggered the confrontation or why the planes were in the region is
unclear, but analysts said the mission may have been designed by Russia
to draw out South Korean and Japanese aircraft for intelligence
gathering purposes.
"This mission
will have given them a comprehensive map of the (South Korean) national
air defense system," said Peter Layton, a former Royal Australian Air
Force pilot and analyst at the Griffith Asia Institute.
Chaos in the skies
The incident came during what South Korean officials have claimed was a joint Russian-Chinese military exercise.
According
to South Korea, two Chinese H-6 bombers passed into Seoul's Air Defense
Identification Zone (KADIZ) beginning from 6.44 a.m., joined by two
Russian Tu-95 strategic bombers.
The four planes then entered the KADIZ together at about 8.40 a.m. and remained there for 24 minutes.
Airspace
is defined as the area 12 nautical miles from a country's borders,
which falls entirely under its control. An ADIZ is an area in which the
controlling country demands identification, location and control of
aircraft's direction, but doesn't necessarily have any rights of
engagement under international law.
South Korea's KADIZ was first established in 1950 and most recently adjusted by Seoul in 2013.
After
the KADIZ flyover, Seoul said a Russian A-50 flew above the contested
islands first at 9.09 a.m. local time and then again at 9.33 a.m., each
time for just a matter of minutes.
In
response, South Korea deployed F-15F and KF-16 fighter jets, the
statement said, and fired 360 warning shots ahead of the Russian
aircraft, 80 during the first violation and 280 during the second. The
shots were fired using 20mm weapons, according to the country's Ministry
of Defense.
The South Korean
military said they also sent out 30 warnings to the Russian plane but
received no response. The A-50 is an unarmed AWACS plane, standing for
Airborne Warning and Control System, designed for tracking and
observation.
A
Beriev A-50 airborne early warning and control training aircraft flies
over Moscow during the dress rehearsal of a Victory Day air show.
In
a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the Russian Defense Ministry said
that they were conducting the "first joint air patrol using long range
aircraft in the Asian-Pacific region."
It
added that the patrol was "carried out in order to deepen and develop
Russian-Chinese relations" and was "not aimed against third countries."
Earlier
in the day, the Defense Ministry furiously denied the South Korean
reports and accused South Korean fighter pilots of acting
inappropriately.
"(They) conduced
unprofessional maneuvers by crossing the course of Russian strategic
missile carriers, threatening their security," the ministry said in a
statement Tuesday. The statement made no mention of the A-50.
South
Korean air forces F-15 fly in formation during the media day of the
65th South Korea Armed Forces Day ceremony on September 25, 2017 in
Pyeongteak.
"This
is not the first time the South Korean pilots have unsuccessfully tried
to prevent Russian aircraft from flying over the neutral waters," the
Russian statement said, adding it didn't recognize South Korea's KADIZ.
It
also denied that there was any "warning fire," adding if the Russian
pilots had felt "any threat to their security, the response would not be
long in coming."
But after Moscow
released its statement, Japan confirmed it had also scrambled fighter
jets in response to the Russian incursion Tuesday.
"We
confirmed Russia's A50 has invaded Japan's airspace while two of
Russian TU-95 bombers and two Chinese H-6 bombers flew around Japan. We
took measures against the invasion," said a spokesman for the country's
Ministry of Defense.
When asked
about the incident, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said they
weren't aware of the details and referred the question to the Defense
Department.
"You used the word
'intrusion' and I'd caution against using such terms, considering China
and South Korea are friendly neighbors and the situation is not clear
yet," spokeswoman Hua Chunying said.
War of words
Chung
Eui-yong, director of South Korea's National Security Office, said that
he had sent a "strong" message of complaint to the Russian authorities
over the incident.
"We are taking
this situation very seriously, and if this kind of action is repeated,
we will take even stronger measures," Chung said, without detailing what
those measures could be.
The
Japanese government said that it had issued a strong protest against
both the Russian and the South Korean governments for intruding on what
they regard as their airspace.
The South Koreans said they had dismissed Japan's protests. Moscow has not responded to either country's concerns.
Carl
Schuster, a former director of operations at the United States' Pacific
Command's Joint Intelligence Center, said that shooting a warning shot
in the air was "very very serious" and "very, very rare."
Russian
President Vladimir Putin and South Korea's President Moon Jae-in hold a
bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on June
28.
Schuster
said that the fact shots were fired meant Seoul had viewed the
violation as a serious and deliberate act, adding he couldn't explain
why the Russian plane would come back again after the first warning.
"Penetrating
to a point of requiring warning shots to turn away is normally the
result of a deliberate decision to penetrate that airspace," he said.
Though East Asia is riven by numerous, long-standing territorial disputes, Russia and South Korea rarely come into conflict.
Top
Russian and South Korean leaders at the G20 in Osaka, Japan, in June,
where they praised their warming bilateral relations. Russian President
Vladimir Putin said South Korea was "one of our key partners" in Asia.
It
is the second tense incident involving the Russian military in East
Asia in less than two months. On June 8 two vessels from the United
States and Russia almost collided in the Pacific, coming within 50 feet
of each other.
The exact location of the standoff wasn't clear but it was believed to take place in the waters off the coast of China.
Relations between Beijing and Moscow have reached an "unprecedented" peak in the past year, according to Russia's Putin, including growing cooperation between their two militaries .
No comments:
Post a Comment