The message about the crash of a military plane in the Middle East came on the morning of Tuesday, November 24. The Defense Ministries of Turkey and Russia confirm the fact of the fall of the Russian Su-24 bomber, but each side describes the circumstances of the incident differently.
According to Ankara, the plane violated Turkish airspace, and the pilots were warned about it several times in a row. As a result, F-16 fighters were raised into the air, which shot down the Russian bomber. In addition, as CNN Türk reports, one of the pilots was killed and the other was captured by the Syrian Turkmen.
Moscow, on the other hand, claims that the Russian Air Force Su-24 bomber did not violate airspace Turkey, but was shot down (presumably from the ground) over the territory of Syria. The Russian Defense Ministry does not report on the fate of the pilots, except that, according to preliminary data, they ejected from the falling plane.
Airless space
For more than four years civil war in Syria, this is not the first tragic air violation incident. So, in June 2012, the Syrian army shot down an F-4 reconnaissance aircraft of the Turkish Air Force in coastal zone Mediterranean Sea, after violating the air border over Syrian territorial waters. Both pilots were killed and their bodies were found during a joint search by the Syrian and Turkish navies.
Then Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he was "outraged" by the Syrian decision to shoot down the plane, which, he said, was carrying out a training mission. "A short-term violation of the [air] border can never be a pretext for an attack," the BBC quoted him as saying. Syria, he said, is an "obvious threat" to Turkey. However, Ankara did not take immediate response measures then: Erdogan announced that Turkey would adhere to the position of "common sense", which, however, "should not be perceived as weakness." In December 2012, the NATO Council decided to strengthen the Turkish air defense forces in the area: two batteries of Patriot air defense systems were provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.
Subsequently, the Al Arabiya TV channel released documents that allegedly prove the involvement of Russian specialists in the plane crash and claimed that the Turkish pilots were captured alive and then secretly executed. “Based on information and instructions from the Russian leadership, [there is an idea of] the need to destroy two Turkish pilots detained by a special operations unit,” one of the documents says. The pilots were to be killed "naturally" and their bodies returned to the plane crash site in international waters, it is indicated there. Neither Turkey nor Syria recognized the authenticity of the documents.
Already in the fall of 2012, when clashes between Syrian troops and the armed opposition on the border with Turkey became more frequent and shells began to fly into Turkish territory, Ankara undertook several bombing raids on Syrian positions. In September 2013, the Turkish Air Force shot down a Syrian Mi-17 helicopter in the country's airspace. In March 2014, they shot down one of two MiG-23 fighters that were flying over rebel positions near the Turkish border - one of the vehicles crossed Turkish airspace. The pilot ejected and was rescued.
In 2015, there were two serious incidents: in May, Turkey shot down an Iranian-made unmanned reconnaissance aircraft from the ground, which flew 11 km into its territory. In mid-October, after the start of the Russian Air Force's operation in Syria, a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian-made drone that flew 3 km deep into Turkey. Despite hints from Ankara and Washington, Moscow denied that the UAV belonged to the Russian army. As a result, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that although the apparatus was Russian-made, it could belong to both the Syrian authorities and the Kurdish rebels.
Without consequences
Since the end of the Cold War, countries that are not formally at war have repeatedly destroyed each other's warplanes over their territory. For example, in April 1992, a group of several F-4 fighter-bombers of the Iranian Air Force violated Iraqi airspace in order to bombard the Iranian opposition camp from the air. One of the planes was shot down by Iraqi air defenses. In 1980-1988, the two countries fought a war that claimed the lives of at least 250 thousand people, but despite the fact that the incident in the air was the largest violation of the ceasefire between the countries in four years, the resumption of hostilities did not follow.
In October 1996, a Turkish F-16 crashed in the Aegean Sea near the Greek island of Samos (close to the territorial waters of Turkey) during a training flight. One of the pilots was killed, the other was rescued by the Greek military. The incident occurred during another aggravation of the territorial dispute over the Aegean Islands, but Athens and Ankara announced that the crash of the fighter jet was an accident. Seven years later, the Turkish admiral claimed that the F-16 was in fact shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Greek plane. Athens declined to confirm new reports.
In February 2009, US forces discovered and shot down an Iranian reconnaissance drone cruising over neighboring Iraq. According to a Pentagon spokesman, Washington had previously accused Tehran of violating Iraqi airspace, but the Iranians denied all accusations, calling the violations random. “Now it is clear that this is not an accident or a coincidence,” said Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. "After all, the drone was inside the borders of Iraq for more than an hour." No action directed against Iran followed this incident.
The incident in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Syrian-Turkish border, where, according to the official statement of Ankara, it vividly recalled the times of the Cold War. During that period, the air confrontation between the USSR Air Force and the military aviation of the NATO countries repeatedly led to military clashes.
According to incomplete data, in the period from 1950 to 1983, at least 40 cases of the use of weapons by aircraft of the USSR and NATO air forces against each other were recorded. These cases do not include fighting in Vietnam, Korea and the Middle East.
According to military experts, in reality there were much more military clashes, but many incidents were hushed up by both sides in order to avoid an escalation of the situation.
At the same time, the main losses in these battles were borne by NATO forces, since they were the ones who were operating in the immediate vicinity of the USSR airspace. In the course of military clashes, the forces of the NATO countries lost at least 27 aircraft and helicopters and more than 130 military personnel. The losses of the USSR Air Force do not exceed 10 aircraft.
Here are just the biggest air incidents of the Cold War.
On April 8, 1950, the PB4Y-2 Privatir bomber aircraft of the 26th US Navy Patrol Squadron was shot down soviet fighters La-11 over the Baltic Sea near the Latvian Liepaja. According to Soviet pilots, the intruder fired at them and was shot down directly over Latvia, falling into the sea. The US said a private jet was shot down. The crew of the downed plane, numbering 10 people, was killed.
On October 8, 1950, two F-80 "Shooting Star" fighter-bombers of the US Air Force deviated from the course during a combat mission against ground targets in North Korea (during the Korean War), invaded Soviet airspace and attacked Sukhaya Rechka airfield. near Vladivostok. As a result of the raid, 8 P-63 King Cobra aircraft of the USSR Air Force were damaged on the ground, one of them was subsequently decommissioned; there were no casualties or injuries. The United States apologized in connection with the incident, the commander of the air group, the planes of which made the raid, was removed from command and transferred to staff work; the pilots were brought to trial.
On June 13, 1952, the RB-29 "Superfortress" reconnaissance aircraft of the 91st Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force, flying from the Japanese Yokota airbase, was shot down by Soviet MiG-15 fighters over Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan... According to the pilots, the intruder fired at them. All 12 aircraft crew members are presumed dead.
On July 29, 1953, the RB-50G Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft of the 343rd Strategic Reconnaissance Squadron of the US Air Force was shot down by Soviet MiG-17 fighters near Askold Island over the Sea of \u200b\u200bJapan. The aircraft's tail gunner unsuccessfully fired at Soviet fighters during the interception. Of the 17 crew members, 1 survived, picked up by an American ship.
On November 7, 1954, an RB-29 Superfortress reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by Soviet fighters over the Kuril Islands. The crew left the car with parachutes, 10 were rescued by American emergency services, 1 drowned after splashdown. The Soviet side stated that the plane was in the airspace of the USSR and fired at the fighters that intercepted it, the American side rejected these accusations.
On June 22, 1955, the P2V Neptune patrol aircraft of the 9th US Navy Patrol Squadron was attacked by Soviet MiG-15 fighters over the Bering Strait, after which it crashed on St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. There were no fatalities among the crew members, but they were all injured. The incident took place in difficult meteorological conditions, which makes it difficult to reconstruct the picture of the incident. The USSR agreed to pay material compensation in connection with the incident.
Soviet aces shot down Turkish planes and captured a Turkish colonel
On September 2, 1958, a C-130A-II "Hercules" reconnaissance aircraft of the 7406th US Air Force Support Squadron, which took off from the Adana airfield in Turkey, was shot down by Soviet MiG-17 fighters over Armenia. All 17 crew members died, their remains were returned partly immediately after the incident, partly after search operations 40 years later.
May 1, 1960 US CIA U-2C reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by Francis Powers, shot down by a Soviet air defense system in the Sverdlovsk region during a reconnaissance flight from the Peshawar air base in Pakistan. The plane was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. An anti-aircraft missile also accidentally shot down a Soviet MiG-19 fighter, raised to intercept the intruder (pilot Sergei Safronov died). Powers survived, was sentenced to prison by a Soviet court, and in 1962 was exchanged for a Soviet scout Rudolf Abel.
On October 21, 1970, a light twin-engine U-8 Seminole aircraft of the US Air Force lost its way, violated the airspace of the USSR and landed at the airfield of a flying military unit near the city of Leninakan, Armenian SSR. In addition to the pilot, there were two American generals and a colonel of the Turkish army on board. Realizing his mistake, the plane tried to take off again, but was blocked. After investigation of the incident, the pilots and passengers were released.
On November 28, 1973, an RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft of the Iranian Air Force invaded Soviet airspace in the Transcaucasus. The MiG-21SM fighter that intercepted it unsuccessfully used up its missiles, after which pilot Gennady Eliseev made a supersonic air ram. The crew of the Iranian plane (Iranian and American) ejected and was detained by the Soviet military. Pilot Gennady Eliseev died. For intercepting the intruder, he was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously).
On August 24, 1976, a pair of F-100 Super Saber fighter-bombers of the Turkish Air Force invaded Soviet airspace. One of them was shot down by a Soviet anti-aircraft missile system - the pilot ejected and landed in Turkey.
On September 1, 1983, in the skies over the USSR, the Boeing 747 of the South Korean airline Korean Air Lines was shot down while it was flying on the New York - Seoul route. During the flight, the airliner entered the closed airspace of the USSR and flew over several Soviet military targets. As a result, two Su-15 interceptors were lifted into the air.
Military pilots repeatedly tried to establish contact with the intruder, but they never received a signal back. The Korean Boeing continued its flight towards Sakhalin. Having reported this to the operational headquarters, the command decided to shoot down the plane. After 40 minutes, the Su-15 fighter-interceptor under the control of Gennady Osipovich was ordered to shoot down a passenger liner.
Osipovich fired two missiles at the planes, one of which damaged the Boeing's tail. After 12 minutes, the plane, spiraling down from an altitude of 9000 m, fell into the sea near Moneron Island. The crash killed 246 passengers and 23 crew members, no one survived.
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Video: NaturalHeaven on YouTube
Last Run - Downed Korean Boeing
According to an investigation by the International Organization civil aviation (ICAO), the most likely reason for the deviation from the flight path was that the Boeing 747 pilots incorrectly adjusted the autopilot and then did not perform the proper checks to update the current position.
The incident caused a serious aggravation of the already difficult relations between the USSR and the USA at that time. The scarcity of information and material evidence at the initial stage of the investigation into the disaster gave rise to alternative versions of the incident. However, the release The Russian Federation Flight KAL 007 flight recorders confirmed the original ICAO version.
SUPERSONIC TARAN
On November 28, 1973, an Iranian Air Force RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft invaded Soviet airspace in the Transcaucasus. On alarm from the airfield in Vaziani, the Soviet MiG-21SM under the control of Gennady Eliseev was urgently raised into the air. Ignoring all requests to change course and leave Soviet airspace, Phantom continued its flight. Then the command allowed Eliseev to shoot down an enemy plane.
The MiG-21 fired two missiles at the intruder, but both of them missed the target. Having spent all the ammunition, the pilot decided to ram the Phantom. This was the third supersonic air ram in the history of aviation. The crew of the Iranian plane (Iranian and American) ejected and was released by the Soviet side two weeks later (the Iranian pilot later died in the Iran-Iraq war). Gennady Eliseev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his interception.
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Video: ANZ Nick on YouTube
Supersonic fighter - interceptor Su-15
SPY PLANE U-2
On May 1, 1960, a U-2C reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Powers invaded Soviet airspace. This was not the first time that high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft flew over the territory of the Soviet Union.
U-2C was shot down by a Soviet air defense system in the Sverdlovsk region during a reconnaissance flight from Peshawar airbase, Pakistan. According to the official version, the plane was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. Powers survived, as the missile only damaged the tail of the plane. As a result, he was sentenced to imprisonment by a Soviet court and in 1962 he was exchanged for a Soviet intelligence agent Rudolf Abel.
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Video: Dmitry Chronika on YouTube
Intelligence battle U-2 stealth aircraft
INCIDENT CL-44
On July 18, 1981, a CL-44 transport aircraft (number LV-JTN, Transporte Aéreo Rioplatense, Argentina), making a secret transport flight on the Tel Aviv-Tehran route, invaded Soviet airspace.
To intercept the intruder from the Vaziani airfield, four Su-15TMs were raised, however, due to the indecision and unskilled actions of the command, the interceptors prematurely used up fuel and were forced to return to base. Then a similar aircraft, piloted by Valentin Kulyapin, armed with R-98M medium-range air-to-air missiles, was aimed at the target with the task of landing the intruder.
Trying to carry out the order, the interceptor approached the target, which made it impossible to use missiles, while the intruder was approaching the border of the USSR airspace. Kulyapin decided to ram the CL-44 and on the second attempt he was able to hit the fighter's stabilizer from below with the keel and fuselage of his aircraft.
The transport plane lost control and crashed several kilometers from the border; 4 crew members on board, including a British national, were killed. Kulyapin successfully ejected, for the ram was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. As it turned out, the Argentine plane was carrying weapons for Iran.
THE INCIDENT OF THE SOUTH KOREAN BOING
The incident with the South Korean Boeing took place on April 20, 1978 in the airspace of the USSR over Karelia. Due to a malfunction of the compass, the plane deviated significantly from the route. At 20:54 local time, the Boeing was first spotted by Soviet radars. At 21:19, he invaded Soviet airspace in the Kola Peninsula region.
Since the intruder did not respond to requests from dispatching services, a Su-15 piloted by Captain Alexander Bosov was raised to intercept. Approaching the Boeing, Bossov shook his wings. In response to this, the offender turned around and began to leave towards Finland. Bossov was ordered to destroy the intruder.
At 21:42, the interceptor fired an R-98 rocket, which exploded near the leftmost engine of the Boeing, tearing off a 3-4 m long wing. In addition, the passenger compartment depressurized, the plane began a sharp descent and was lost by Bosov.
The Boeing was forced to land on the ice of the frozen lake Korpijärvi. As a result of a hard landing, 2 passengers were killed: an entrepreneur from South Korea and a tourist from Japan. In total, there were 97 passengers on board (including 26 women and 5 children) and 12 crew members.
LANDING ON THE RED SQUARE
On the afternoon of May 28, 1987, 18-year-old Matthias Rust took off from Hamburg in a four-seat light aircraft Cessna-172B Skyhawk. He made a stopover at Helsinki-Malmi Airport for refueling. Rust told the airport dispatch service that he was flying to Stockholm. At some point, Rust cut off communication with the Finnish dispatch service, and then headed to coastline Baltic Sea and disappeared from Finnish airspace near Sipoo. Rescuers found an oil slick in the sea and regarded it as evidence of a plane crash. Rust crossed the Soviet border near the town of Kohtla-Järve and headed for Moscow.
Moving to Moscow, Rust was guided by railroad Leningrad-Moscow. On the way of his flight, duty units from the airfields of Hotilovo and Bezhetsk rose into the air, but the order to shoot down the Cessna was never received.
The automated air defense system of the Moscow Military District was turned off for preventive maintenance, so the tracking of the intruder aircraft had to be done manually and coordinated by telephone. Rust landed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, rode up to St. Basil's Cathedral, at 19:10 got off the plane and began to sign autographs. Soon he was arrested.
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Video: chipilayr on YouTube
Matthias Rust on Red Square 1987
Russia and Turkey have confirmed that the Su-24 bomber was shot down on the Syrian-Turkish border. The history of such incidents shows that both parties involved in such situations try to avoid escalating the conflict.
Russian Su-24 bomber takes off from Khmeimim airbase, October 21, 2015 (Photo: RIA Novosti)
The message about the crash of a military plane in the Middle East came on the morning of Tuesday, November 24. The Defense Ministries of Turkey and Russia confirm the fact of the fall of the Russian Su-24 bomber, but each side describes the circumstances of the incident differently.
According to Ankara, the plane violated Turkish airspace, and the pilots were warned about it several times in a row. As a result, F-16 fighters were raised into the air, which shot down the Russian bomber. In addition, as CNN Türk reports, one of the pilots was killed and the other was captured by the Syrian Turkmen.
Moscow, by contrast, claims that the Russian Air Force's Su-24 bomber did not violate Turkish airspace, but was shot down (presumably from the ground) over Syrian territory. The Russian Defense Ministry does not report on the fate of the pilots, except that, according to preliminary data, they ejected from the falling plane.
Airless space
In more than four years of the civil war in Syria, this is not the first incident related to the violation of airspace, which entailed tragic consequences. So, in June 2012, the Syrian army shot down a Turkish Air Force F-4 reconnaissance aircraft in the Mediterranean coastal area after violating the air border over Syrian territorial waters. Both pilots were killed and their bodies were found during a joint search by the Syrian and Turkish navies.
Then Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he was "outraged" by the Syrian decision to shoot down the plane, which, he said, was carrying out a training mission. "A short-term violation of the [air] border can never be a pretext for an attack," the BBC quoted him as saying. Syria, he said, is an "obvious threat" to Turkey. However, Ankara did not take immediate response measures then: Erdogan announced that Turkey would adhere to the position of "common sense", which, however, "should not be perceived as weakness." In December 2012, the NATO Council decided to strengthen the Turkish air defense forces in this area: two Patriot air defense systems were provided by the United States, Germany and the Netherlands.
Subsequently, the Al Arabiya TV channel released documents that allegedly prove the involvement of Russian specialists in the plane crash and claimed that the Turkish pilots were captured alive and then secretly executed. “Based on information and instructions from the Russian leadership, [there is an idea of] the need to destroy two Turkish pilots detained by a special operations unit,” one of the documents says. The pilots were to be killed "naturally" and their bodies returned to the plane crash site in international waters, it is indicated there. Neither Turkey nor Syria recognized the authenticity of the documents.
Already in the fall of 2012, when clashes between Syrian troops and the armed opposition on the border with Turkey became more frequent and shells began to fly into Turkish territory, Ankara undertook several bombing raids on Syrian positions. In SeptemberIn 2013, the Turkish Air Force shot down a Syrian Mi-17 helicopter in the country's airspace. In March 2014, they shot down one of two fightersMoment -23, which flew around rebel positions near the Turkish border: one of the vehicles crossed Turkish airspace. The pilot ejected and was rescued.
In 2015, there were two serious incidents: in May, Turkey shot down an Iranian-made unmanned reconnaissance aircraft from the ground, which flew 11 km into its territory. In mid-October, after the start of the Russian Air Force's operation in Syria, a Turkish F-16 shot down a Russian-made drone that flew 3 km deep into Turkey. Despite hints from Ankara and Washington, Moscow denied that the UAV belonged to the Russian army. As a result, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that although the apparatus was Russian-made, it could belong to both the Syrian authorities and the Kurdish rebels.
Without consequences
Since the end of the Cold War, countries that are not formally at war have repeatedly destroyed each other's warplanes over their territory. For example, in April 1992, a group of several F-4 fighter-bombers of the Iranian Air Force violated Iraqi airspace in order to bombard the Iranian opposition camp from the air. One of the planes was shot down by Iraqi air defenses. In 1980-1988, the two countries fought a war that claimed the lives of at least 250 thousand people, but despite the fact that the incident in the air was the largest violation of the ceasefire between the countries in four years, the resumption of hostilitiesdid not follow.
In October 1996, a Turkish F-16 crashed in the Aegean Sea, near the Greek island of Samos (close to the territorial waters of Turkey) during a training flight. One of the pilots was killed, the other was rescued by the Greek military. The incident occurred during another aggravation of the territorial dispute over the Aegean Islands, but Athens and Ankara announced that the crash of the fighter was an accident. Seven years later, a Turkish admiral claimed that the F-16 was in fact shot down by an air-to-air missile from a Greek plane. Athens declined to confirm new reports.
In February 2009, US forces discovered and shot down an Iranian reconnaissance drone cruising over neighboring Iraq. According to a Pentagon spokesman, Washington had previously accused Tehran of violating Iraqi airspace, but the Iranians denied all accusations, calling the violations random. “Now it is clear that this is not an accident or a coincidence,” said Lt. Col. Mark Ballesteros. "After all, the drone was inside the borders of Iraq for more than an hour." No action directed against Iran followed this incident.
The beginning of which was laid by the collapse of the USSR into independent states. With his disappearance ended the longest war of the twentieth century, which was fought between the West and the East and was called the Cold War. Covert hostilities have been fought for 46 years, not only on land but also at sea and in the air. The beginning of the Cold War - 1945. The goal is the struggle for world domination of the capitalist and communist superpowers.
Neither the United States nor the USSR could openly oppose each other, so the entire confrontation resulted in the Cold War.
Throughout these years, the Americans conducted large-scale intelligence activities against the Soviet Union, violating air, sea and land borders. Not without provocations. It is clear that the USSR could not afford to carry out such actions with impunity, therefore such provocations often ended in local battles. Mostly they were conducted in the air.
Since 1945, American aircraft have carried out reconnaissance of the Soviet Far Eastern territories, in particular, Kamchatka, the Bering Strait, Chukotka and Kuril Islands... And there were reasons for that. The war between America and Japan in the Pacific has entered its final stage. The actions of the Americans in the air intensified sharply.
Despite the fact that during the Second World War America and the USSR were allies, this did not prevent the Americans from feeling very at ease in the airspace, quite often flying over Soviet military bases and ships. It should be remembered that, most likely, the American pilots who make such flights did not think about the problems of big politics, assuming that the principles of military brotherhood are above all. However, the leaderships of both countries needed reasons for unleashing conflicts and, as you understand, they did not have to look for them for a long time.
At the end of May 1945, anti-aircraft artillery Pacific Fleet shot two American military aircraft B-24. The incident took place in the Kamchatka region. Two months later, a similar situation occurred with another American P-38 aircraft, and in the same area. But since the fire was not directed to kill, the planes did not receive any damage. But the Americans answered much tougher. In August 1945, American aircraft air force fired at two border Soviet boats near the island of Kamen Gavryushkin, wounding 14 and killing 8 people from the crews. It can be assumed that American pilots mistook Soviet ships for Japanese, but the first victims of the Cold War have already appeared.
After the end of the war in September 1945, air border violations continued. Previously, the Americans could explain such actions by conducting operations against Japan or by mistakes.
Thus, for the period from May to September 1945, 27 cases of violations were recorded, in which 86 B-24 and B-25 aircraft participated. From the moment of Japan's surrender until 1950, there were already 46 such provocations with the participation of 63 aircraft. Moreover, in the period from June 27 to July 16, 1950 alone, 15 air violations were recorded.
The first air collision took place in the Far East in the same 1945, when one of the American bombers made an emergency landing. It happened over Korean territory, near the city of Hamhung, where at that time there was a large air base of the Soviet air force. The Americans, violating the agreement on the air corridor, flew over it, heading to Manchuria for the prisoners. The management of the airbase accepted this situation, but the commission that arrived in the city demanded that measures be taken to stop such flights. In November, one of the American aircraft, which made another flight over soviet base, intercepted 4 Airacobra P-39 fighters and forced him to land. When the American pilots refused to comply with the demands of the Soviet fighters, one of them fired at the American plane, which caused the engine to burn. The Americans were forced to land. None of the American crew were injured. It is noteworthy that no fire was opened on Soviet aircraft. Later, the B-29 was sent to Moscow for testing.
In the postwar years, there was a violation of the borders of the Soviet Union in the northwest, from Norway and Finland. It was a little quieter in the southern cordons of the country. But here, too, there were violations of the air border, mainly over the territory of Azerbaijan. In 1947, the crew of one of the provocateurs was captured. So, from the side of Iran, a single-engine aircraft of the air force of this state appeared. He landed near the city of Nakhichevan. The border patrol detained his crew. The pilots explained that they flew to Tabriz from Tehran, but lost their bearings and therefore ended up on Soviet territory. Perhaps this was true, but the plane belonged to Iranian intelligence, and was also armed. In the same 1947, three more cases of violations by Iranian and American aircraft were recorded in the same area.
Later, air provocations were carried out more often, and their consequences were more tragic.
There is evidence that the official first casualties of the Cold War appeared in 1950, when an American PB4Y aircraft violated Soviet airspace near the Libau base in the Baltic. La-11 fighters, raised on alert, intercepted him. But since the American pilots refused to carry out the commands of the Soviet pilots, they had no choice but to open fire. The Americans responded with fire. As a result, PB4Y was shot down and fell into the sea. All 10 members of its crew were killed. It is worth noting that such American military vehicles have appeared several times before, so the Soviet side set up an ambush. The Soviet command insisted that the B-29 was shot down, while the Americans still admitted the loss of PB4Y.
There is information that the Americans suffered losses on the Soviet borders before. For example, in 1949, an American B-25 aircraft was shot down over the Black Sea, which landed three paratroopers on Soviet territory, while he himself tried to hide in neutral waters. He was intercepted by two Soviet fighters and shot down. The American crew was picked up by a Soviet border boat.
Most of the evidence of air battles during the Cold War has been preserved in the 50s. It is clear that there are no exact statistics and cannot be, but nevertheless, some data even sometimes appeared in print. So, according to some sources, in 10 years, starting from 1950, American aircraft tried 81 times to violate Soviet airspace, of which 20 combat vehicles did not return. According to American sources, the United States began reconnaissance over Soviet territories back in 1949, using specially converted bombers for this. Until 1960, 17 such aircraft did not return.
Other sources speak of a different figure. So, in the period from 1953 to 1956 alone, the Americans violated Soviet air borders 113 times.
Tragic mistakes for the Soviet side could not be avoided either. In the summer of 1954, when another American reconnaissance officer appeared on radar and then went into neutral waters, his own Tu-14 plane was shot down, which, as part of a group, was returning from training bombing. The entire crew of the vehicle was killed. However, the pilot who shot down his plane was not prosecuted, since the Tu-14 was produced in a small series and therefore was little known for the main aviation units.
Like America, NATO also had a large number of reconnaissance aircraft, most of which were in close proximity to the Soviet borders. Moreover, the CIA had its own aerial reconnaissance, the military department had its own. Each of them had its own tasks, tactical and strategic.
It should also be noted that neutral states were also involved in aviation reconnaissance. In the Soviet press, two cases of Swedish military aircraft that were shot down by Soviet fighters in 1952 received wide publicity. DC-3 aircraft were part of the Swedish radio intelligence unit, were equipped with the most modern equipment for listening to radio communications over Soviet territory. Moreover, Swedish aircraft, in addition to active aerial and electronic reconnaissance of the Baltic coast, provided assistance to anti-government troops in the Baltic.
In addition, reconnaissance aircraft also appeared at the Soviet borders from countries such as Great Britain, Iran, Germany, Turkey. And although they appeared extremely rarely, the potential of the air forces of these states increased, which did not allow the Soviet troops to relax.
It should also be noted that American aircraft learned to harm the Soviet Armed Forces, without even crossing the borders of the Union. So, for example, when one of the Soviet batteries in the Baku region was about to fire from 130-mm anti-aircraft guns, an American aircraft equipped with powerful radio electronics took off from an Iranian base and simply flew along the Soviet border, creating interference. In response to such "rudeness", Soviet troops began to create radio interference for one of the American bases, which was located in Iran, which significantly hampered the takeoff and landing of aircraft. A week later, the "fight against interference" was stopped by mutual agreement.
But if until the mid-50s the Soviet troops somehow managed to maintain the inviolability of the state borders, then in 1954 the last frontier collapsed. The reason for this was the emergence of automatic drifting balloons (ADA) in the arsenal of the Western special services, which were able to rise to great heights, thus becoming inaccessible to fighters. They were equipped with the latest reconnaissance equipment and launched from military bases in Norway, Germany, Italy, France, Turkey. ADA could reach heights of up to 30 kilometers, so even the Soviet MiG-15bis, Yak-25 and MiG-17P, which operated at an altitude of up to 15 kilometers, were not able to reach them. Therefore, balloons successfully conducted reconnaissance over practically the entire Soviet territory. The air defense forces of the USSR had no choice but to record their appearance.
True, some ADA were shot down. The first of them was destroyed in 1954 near Chernivtsi at an altitude of 10 kilometers with the help of the MiG-17P. A few days later, the Soviet pilots tried again to shoot down the balloon, but this time they failed.
The period of the greatest activity of ADA began in 1956, when about 3 thousand balloons violated the Soviet borders in just two months. And over 20 years, 4112 balls were recorded, of which 793 were shot down.
In addition, the British Canberra reconnaissance aircraft, the American RB-57 and U-2 delivered many problems to the Soviet air defense system. Later, the RB-57F also appeared. All of them operated at heights inaccessible to interception.
In just 5 days in July 1956, they made 5 breakthroughs into Soviet territory up to 350 kilometers deep. In the same year, Lockheed U-2 appeared, which appeared over Moscow and Kiev, Crimea and Minsk, The Far East and the Baltics, Siberia and Central Asia. All attempts to "get" the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft were unsuccessful. And only in November 1959, the "antidote" was found. It was at this time that the S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile system was adopted by the Soviet air defense system. It demonstrated its effectiveness on November 16, when an American balloon was shot down at an altitude of 28 kilometers.
The S-75 began to be used not only to protect borders, but also especially important facilities on the very territory of the state. A little later, the Su-9, fighter-interceptors with a ceiling height of 20 kilometers, began to enter service. But their number was still insufficient to provide reliable protection. So, in 1960, the Lockheed aircraft, having taken off from Pakistan, violated the Soviet border in the Turkmenia region and headed for Baikonur. Attempts were made to intercept it with two MiG-19s, but one of the planes was destroyed, so the interception did not take place. When the Lockheed returned over the territory of Turkmenistan, two MiG-17s tried to intercept it, pursuing the scout even over Iranian territory, but to no avail.
In May 1960, they still managed to win a victory over U-2, but there were some casualties from the Soviet side. Near Sverdlovsk, two MiG-19 and Su-9 were alerted, but none of these fighters managed to intercept the enemy, but the missilemen coped with this problem. True, they overdid it: in a hurry they began to fire at their own people, as a result of which one MiG-19 was destroyed, and the pilot died.
A major international scandal erupted, after which US President D. Eisenhower banned Lockheed's flights. The silence lasted for over 2 years. At the end of August 1962, they reappeared over Soviet territory in the region of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Chukotka.
In addition to such high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, low-rise vehicles appeared over Soviet territory: RB-47 Stratojet and RB-45C Tornado. So, RB-47 has repeatedly appeared over the Japanese and Caspian Seas, in the Vladivostok area. In July 1960, one of these aircraft crossed the border in the Arkhangelsk region. The MiG-19 was used to intercept it. As a result, the American plane was shot down, of the 6 crew members, only two survived.
When anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as new generation fighter-interceptors, appeared in the arsenal of the Soviet troops, high-altitude border breakouts ended. But this does not mean at all that air border violations have stopped. The NATO countries were armed with long-range radar aircraft, which could conduct reconnaissance even outside the borders of the desired state. It was enough to be near the Soviet borders to conduct successful reconnaissance hundreds of kilometers inland.
Very little information about the confrontation between America and the USSR in the 60s has been preserved, since by order of L. Brezhnev, strict censorship was introduced in the press. Any incidents that happened on the Soviet border were classified. Therefore, the only source is the Western media. So, for 3 years, from 1967 to 1970, the American side violated the air borders of the Soviet Union more than 10 times. Among them is the case of DC-8, which in 1968 crossed the border near the Kuril Islands, the name on board 100 American soldiers. Air defense fighters were sent to intercept. After investigating and establishing the circumstances, the aircraft itself, the soldiers and the crew were handed over to the American government.
At the end of May 1978, a Soviet Tu-16R aircraft of the Northern Fleet Air Force disappeared in the waters of the Norwegian Sea. Nothing is known about what happened to the scout. The latest information received from the aircraft was that the pilots had discovered the American Essex. There are guesses that the Tu-16-R was shot down by the Americans, although the latter deny their involvement in the disappearance of the Soviet plane.
Another Soviet Tu-95RTs aircraft of the Northern Fleet Air Force disappeared in the Norwegian Sea in August 1976.
When making an aerial reconnaissance flight to the Atlantic, Tu-95RTs tried to intercept the American F-4 Phantom, as a result of which one of them crashed wing into the tail of a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft. American pilots ejected, and Soviet pilots barely made it to base.
Another incident is connected with the violation of Soviet borders, which ended in the death of hundreds of people. In September 1983, the Soviet airspace was violated by the South Korean Boeing 747 airliner, which was very similar to the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. When the target mark appeared on the airborne radar, the Su-15 pilot who was sent to intercept identified it as RC-135. There is no need to remind what happened next ...
After the new MiG-31 interceptor fighters, which are considered the best in the world, appeared in service in the Soviet Union, the Americans no longer wanted to conduct aerial reconnaissance over Soviet territory. The Americans recognized the Soviet dominance in the air, focusing on the creation of ultra-precise.
