The Russian pilot fired 2 missiles at the British plane, confident that he had received an order

A Russian Su-27 pilot fired two missiles over the Black Sea at a Royal Air Force spy plane. The incident occurred on September 29, 2022. Details from the BBC.

The pilot thought that he had received permission to attack, but Moscow and London ambiguously voiced the official version of what happened, tells Air Force publication citing three sources in Western defense circles.

On that day, a Royal Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint, with a crew of up to 30, was on a surveillance mission over the Black Sea in international airspace when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets interacted with it.

As they approached the British plane, they received a message from the ground station controller, a source told the publication: “You have a target.” One of the Russian pilots took the ambiguous remark as permission to fire missiles. Experts from defense circles say that such loose formulations indicate a high degree of unprofessionalism of those involved in this incident. NATO pilots, for example, are very clear in requesting and receiving permission to fire.

Hearing the command, the Russian pilot fired an air-to-air missile. It launched successfully, but was unable to home in on the target. Then, sources say, a dispute arose between the two Russian pilots. The pilot of the second Su-27 did not believe that they had been given permission to fire. He scolded his colleague, asking if he thought what he was doing.

Despite this, the first pilot fired another rocket, but it simply fell – either the weapon was faulty, or the launch was aborted, the Air Force writes.

Three weeks later, the UK government confirmed that such an incident had occurred. Official London accepted the explanations of the Russian side, which called the incident a “technical malfunction.” Then-Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, in a statement to parliamentarians on October 20, described the mid-air incident as a “potentially dangerous encounter” but said:

“We do not believe this incident was a deliberate escalation on the part of the Russians, and our analysis confirms that it was due to a malfunction.”

A secret US intelligence leak in 2022 showed that the US military spoke more harshly about what happened. Documents published by US military officer Jack Teixeira describe the incident as a “near-shooting.” The New York Times wrote at the time:

“The incident was much more serious than initially portrayed and may have amounted to an act of war.”

According to two US defense officials, the publication noted, the Russian pilot misinterpreted an order from the ground:

“The Russian pilot aimed at the British plane, fired, but the missile did not launch properly.”

The newspaper quoted an unnamed US defense official as describing the incident as “very scary indeed”. The Chairman of the Defense Committee of the House of Commons of the British Parliament, Tobias Ellwood, who recently resigned, accused Wallace of hiding important details of the incident with the reconnaissance plane.

Source link