Tu-95 Intercept
In an otherwise yawner of a news story about Hornets from the USS Reagan, operating in the East China Sea, intercepting a couple of Russian Tu-95s which flew to within 80 miles of the carrier, there are two aspects worth questioning.
First, why were the Russian aircraft allowed to get within 80 miles unescorted when, presumably, we could see them hundreds of miles away? I say “presumably” because I would also have presumed that we could navigate a Navy ship out of the way of a giant cargo ship and that turned out not to be the case - twice. Did we not see them until they were that close? Has the recently demonstrated ineptitude carried over to our combat detection capability? It wouldn’t surprise me.
Second, why were aircraft “scrambled” as opposed to simply having the Combat Air Patrol (CAP), or whatever it’s called nowadays (probably something with the word “Joint” in it), make the intercept? Do we no longer maintain a CAP over carriers? Are we that unprepared for combat around China North Korea
Now, note that this is the farthest thing from a professional, accurate report so the language used may well be less than precise. Still, it raises interesting questions.
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(1)Navy Times, “Report: Hornets scrambled to intercept Russian jets near carrier”, Staff, 1-Nov-2017 ,
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