I don’t think the ‘35 was in A/B … wouldn’t need to be, the F16 is pacing the Bear, say 300kias at altitude … it’s just relative airspeed. I would have thought the F16 would have had a heads up from AWACS or ground controllers of the closing fighter.
Foolish & extremely dangerous.
The proper response would be:
Guns, guns, guns.
Or:
Fox 1, Fox 2
Speaking as a retired Navy fighter pilot, I disagree that it was dangerous. During the Cold War in Northern Europe it was part of our job to intercept Russian aircraft. We considered that it was somewhat reasonable to at times pull up alongside, very close alongside, or alternatively sneak by, again very close at a very speed difference. Far from being aggressive, it was FUN for a young highly trained guy in a fast, powerful fighter. Perhaps not so much fun for the Russian Bear crew.
For a well trained fighter pilot, 50 feet clearance is plenty of space. I do wonder whether the American, (perhaps Canadian) pilot, knew that the Russian was inbound, and had orders not to react, otherwise I would have to wonder where his head was, to allow someone to sneak up on his six. I would like to bet that rather than having dark thoughts as he flashed by, the Russian had a big grin inside his mask!
……Fond memories of youthful exuberance!
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I’ve only got 2000 hours of fighter time, but when Big Bird and I pulled a stunt like that close aboard Oriskany, the O-boat’s CO had the Kitty Hawk’s skipper on the line before we got back and trapped. The stuff flowed down hill through the CAG to our squadron commander who was waiting for us in the ready room by the time we got there. I’ve still got the bite marks on my rump.
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2,000 hours is a lot of fighter time. I was fortunate in that my superiors were all ex WW2 pilots. We operated from a totally different set of parameters compared with today. On the other hand, I think that we were better prepared for close in combat. Having said that, I think that you would agree with me, that 50 feet is plenty of space if you want to wake someone up ……. and have a little fun at the same time! I always visualized (and chuckled) that the shockwave that I was pulling along would spill their coffee.
What is disappointing about experiences such as you described, is that in any country in the world, only the top of the class are selected to become fighter pilots. That is not to say that there are not excellent pilots, who for some reason choose not to apply. They are also selected due to certain psychological attributes, particularly Navy or Marine pilots. Once having gone through this demanding selection and training process, the limp wristed senior types do their best to subdue the warrior spirit that they were looking for in the first place. It is all very strange !
More to the point which no one has addressed, is that in these days of clever electronics and radars, did our guy know that he had someone approaching from his six and chose for whatever reason to ignore it, we always had our heads swiveling. I have just had thought which would explain all. He was probably Airforce not Navy or Marine.
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I’m not sure I understand the alternative people are proposing. I highly doubt the pilot was “surprised”. Was he supposed to start shooting? Run away? Neither would have been a good idea. This event occurred exactly as it should have (from the non-Russian side, at least).
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I can’t tell you how many times it was made clear to me that there is no room for “youthful exuberance” in the fighter business – too many self-inflicted wounds. As to this event, IIRC, the RoE of my time said someone pulling across your nose is committing a “hostile act” justifying opening fire. Kudos to the F-16 driver (has to be USAF/ANG) for being the Iceman (rather than Maverick) and not starting WWIII.
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It is a casually interesting difference in perception. I was on a British carrier in the North Sea and occasionally Sub Arctic during the time of the Cuban missile situation. Moscow was something like 500 miles or so away from us. I suppose the claim could be made that we were at the tip were there to be any unpleasantness. We knew that the Russian Bears were probing our defenses, but we also knew that we had a somewhat serious job of explaining that we were there. One had to keep a sense of proportion and sense of fun when intercepting.
In later years I met some of the Bear pilots. They told me that they welcomed our arrival since it broke the terrible monotony of the 23 hour mission from East USSR.
If fighter pilots don’t have a fairly good supply of youthful exuberance, they have certainly changed in the last sixty years…… shame that.
Memories of youthful foolishness.
One unintended deviation from what you think you are doing and down you go.
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You are of course absolutely correct. Having said that, it probably takes a certain amount of youthful foolishness to volunteer to go bouncing off and on a ship day and night. Doubly foolish when operating with no alternate shore base to fly to if necessary.
Some might think that volunteering for all of this in winter North Atlantic conditions stretches even youthful foolishness.
They have indeed changed, and the accident rate has, too – less than 10% now of what it was when I started flying in the Navy 50 years ago. Youthful exuberance is certainly still there in young fighter pilots, but it must be tempered by good judgement and discipline from the captains and commanders (or colonels and majors) above them. That’s one reason the Blues and Thunderbirds are now squadrons of O-4’s and senior O-3’s commanded by senior O-5’s and newly-selected O-6’s rather than teams of O-3’s off their first squadron tour led by O-4’s who’ve never commanded a flying unit before.
Under standard procedure, there should be another F16 flying about a mile in trail covering the lead F16.