Intercept planes. Intercept the spy
AiF.ru told about what it means to "intercept" an aircraft in the air and for what purpose it is being carried out. former aircraft commander, flight safety specialist Alexander Romanov:
- Each state has special airfields on its territory, where interceptor fighters are on duty around the clock. As a rule, the crew is right in the cockpit to instantly start the engine and take off into the sky. Combat readiness - five minutes.
Having detected and identified the target, the fighter approaches it. The interceptor flies up to the intruder from the right side and draws attention to itself by swinging its wings (this maneuver is also interpreted by the pilots as a greeting). Through all communication channels, negotiations are underway with him in order to find out the reason for his appearance in foreign airspace or on the border with him. This could be a deliberate action (intelligence gathering, provocation), or the board could simply go off course, losing its spatial position.
In any event, the Air Force's job is to stop the intruder. There is such an international flight language: if an interceptor fighter abruptly crosses the course of another aircraft and leaves, say, to the left, this means that its pilots must follow it.
That is, it is practically possible to force the plane to land at the desired airfield in order to find out whether the aircraft has a permit to fly in a given location. Also, a fighter can "emerge" from the bottom up, indicating that the road is prohibited further. There are many such signals, about 25, and all of them are known to every pilot.
This is the essence of "intercepting" an aircraft in the air. We are not talking about any destruction of the "enemy" in the air. The interceptor fighter simply forces the intruder to correct its course (leave the protected airspace while being escorted) or land on the ground to further clarify the circumstances of the incident when the air borders are violated.
- What happens if the intruder doesn't react?
- If the detected aircraft continues to fly into a dangerous or restricted area, ignoring the requirements of the Air Force, then the military can open warning fire with tracer shells in front of the cockpit. If there is no reaction here, then they can shoot to kill.
As a rule, if the intruder is a civilian aircraft, then one fighter is enough to "intercept" it, but if we are talking about military aircraft, then several military interceptor fighters rise into the sky.
Today, many military and reconnaissance aircraft fly in neutral zones and over water areas. Unfortunately, this is all part of a huge strategic (or rather, political) game. Unfortunately, there were even cases when uninvited guests interfered with the flight of civilian ships, and those had to urgently change their course, which led to injury to passengers.
The militarist circles of Western countries need to repeat in every way speculation about the "Soviet threat" to reinforce and cover up their plans for an arms race and material preparation for war. One of the activities of the Pentagon and its partners in this direction was the creation of a widely ramified, which includes combat aircraft as active means.
The tasks assigned to air defense aviation are formulated in the foreign military press as follows:
- destruction of single or groups of enemy aircraft that have invaded the airspace of NATO countries;
- air cover of "dead" zones that are not protected by anti-aircraft weapons or were formed as a result of the destruction of some positions of anti-aircraft missiles by the enemy;
- air protection of certain areas or areas of its territory.
Air defense combat aircraft
Air defense combat aircraft in foreign press, as a rule, are called interceptor fighters or simply interceptors. In a number of the air forces of the European NATO countries, conventional fighters equipped with appropriate weapons, or some modernized multipurpose tactical fighters, are used to carry out air defense missions. They are sometimes referred to as air defense fighters. They operate, as a rule, in simple meteorological conditions.Interceptor fighters abroad are considered to be F-106 Delta Dart (Fig. 1), F-101 Voodoo, F-102 Delta Dagger (), F.3 and F.6 (). Fighters that are involved in intercepting air targets and for this are armed with appropriate weapons include: F-5A (,), F-101G (,). Examples of multipurpose tactical fighters that have been upgraded for air defense purposes are the -C (), F-4E 2 (USA) aircraft. They are equipped with either engines of greater power, or starting boosters, or special systems that allow you to automatically go to the target and fire from weapons.
Rice. 1. Link of fighter-interceptors F-106 in flight
The difference between a fighter-interceptor and a fighter, as previously believed by foreign military experts, was as follows. The first did not have to have high maneuverability. Basically, he was assigned the role of a carrier of air-to-air missiles. He was required to act in any meteorological conditions, day and night, to reach the target without complicated maneuvers and hit it mainly on the catch-up at the greatest possible distances from the covered object or territory.
A fighter, on the other hand, usually destroys a target in close air combat at a relatively small distance from a covered object or a group of aircraft.
However, the experience of the wars in Vietnam, as well as not, showed that air battles, which began with missile launches from long distances, often developed into short-range maneuverable ones. Many guided missiles did not reach their target due to overload restrictions and the widespread use of all kinds of RPDs. Therefore, in the future, the aircraft used as interceptor fighters improved their maneuverability, onboard equipment and weapons.
In the joint NATO air defense system in Europe, the command and control centers are responsible for the guidance of aircraft to targets.
According to foreign press reports, to expand the capabilities of aviation control, including guidance, in the United States is being developed. Aircraft equipped with this system are capable of detecting air targets long before they are registered. The crew of the aircraft, having identified the target, can call in fighter-interceptors and aim them at it.
Interception execution
Departure for interception is carried out from the position of "watch at the airfield (aircraft carrier)" or "watch in the air". An independent search for the enemy in the air can also be used.Interception from the "watch at the airfield" position is considered the most optimal in terms of spending manpower and resources. It is recommended to use it when the fighters manage to take off, approach the target and destroy it on the approaches to the covered troops or objects (at the assigned lines of interception) even before the air enemy uses weapons of destruction.
In the foreign press it was reported that some of the crews of fighter-transmitters of NATO countries are on round-the-clock duty at airfields. They can be in 5- or 15-minute readiness for departure (5- and 10-minute readiness is established for the duty crews of the UK fighter-interceptors).
Interception from the "air watch" position consists in the fact that when an air enemy appears, fighters from the watch zones are sent to meet him and attack him.
Airborne watch is organized if fighters do not have time to intercept the enemy at a given line from the "airfield watch" position or, for some reason, it is impossible to obtain timely information about him.
Crews conduct an independent search for the enemy using onboard radar facilities and visually. The search is usually organized in those areas and at those heights of the airspace that are not visible by ground-based radars. For orientation, the crews can be given by radio general information about the air situation: the likely location of the enemy, the nature of his actions, the number of targets, etc.
During interception, the control centers direct the fighter to the target until it is detected or captured by the onboard radar. After that, the fighter's crew attacks the target on their own, taking the appropriate position and observing the launch range of the missile launcher or firing from the cannons.
The start of the attack depends on the detection and target acquisition range of the airborne radar (currently it ranges from 40 to 90 km), and the missile launch line is selected based on their firing ranges (for the missile launcher, the maximum range is 15 km, and for - 25 km) ...
According to foreign experts, an enemy aircraft can be attacked: from the tail, in front, from the traverse or on a collision course. The choice of the direction of attack depends on many factors, and first of all on the position of the target relative to the interceptor at the time of the meeting, as well as on the weapon mounted on it.
In the foreign press, the following example was given of the fulfillment of a training task by the crew of the F-106 aircraft to intercept an air target flying at high altitude at subsonic speed (Fig. 2)
Rice. 2. Scheme of interception (on a collision course) of an air target flying at high altitude (1 and 2 - beams of an airborne radar when viewing and locking a target, an explanation of other designations is given in the text)
Having found and identified the air "enemy" (Fig. 2, a), the control center transmitted commands to take off the fighters (Fig. 2, b). The takeoff of the aircraft, armed with two UR "Falcon" AIM-4F, took place in afterburner mode. At a speed of 350 km / h, the interceptor broke away from the runway. The afterburner was turned off at a speed of 460 km / h. Then, having reached a speed of 750 km / h, the plane began to quickly gain altitude (Fig. 2, c), increasing the speed to 950 km / h. After that, he switched to level flight. The pilot established radio communication with the control center (Fig. 2, d). Further, the commands to the plane were received via the telemetric line. The on-board display always displayed data (course, airspeed, altitude), which the pilot was guided by to bring the aircraft to the "enemy" (target). At the same time, the pilot received information about him (course, speed, altitude, as well as range and azimuth).
On the chart display, the pilot saw the position of his aircraft relative to the target and determined the interception method. When the target mark was at the appropriate height and range, the pilot removed the fuse of the weapon control system, chose the appropriate sector of the radar view and pointed the antenna at the air "enemy" (Fig. 2.e), which was flying on a collision course at an altitude of 12000 m it was 50 km). The attack was carried out by the "Snap-up" method, which provides for a quick rapprochement with the "enemy" followed by an attack from below on a head-on course. To do this, the pilot turned on the afterburner, and the plane quickly went over to supersonic speed. When the target was 5 ° to the left of the aircraft centerline, the onboard radar captured it (Fig. 2, f). After that, the pilot contacted the control center and began to independently carry out the final stage of the attack (the aircraft can be controlled automatically or manually). Having chosen the range scale "26 km" on the radar display screen, the pilot watched the target mark.
At a distance of about 22 km from the "enemy" (its excess over the attacking aircraft was not reported in the foreign press), the interceptor began to reach the missile launch line. The direction to the target was maintained by aligning the command index with the central mark of the indicator. The plane was transferred to a sharp climb. The outer range ring on the indicator screen began to narrow, and when it reached the size of the launch range ring, the rocket automatically left the guides (Fig. 2, g). A signal appeared on the indicator, notifying that the rocket was launched. Then the plane performed a maneuver to exit the attack (Fig. 2, h). The return of the fighter-interceptor to the airbase also took place on commands from the control center.
If the air "enemy" jammed during the attack, the pilot turned on the onboard radar in the jamming tracking mode and the station re-acquired the target. In this case, another missile was automatically launched.
Approximately the same scheme for intercepting high-altitude targets, as noted in the foreign press, is inherent in other types of interceptor fighters. They are characterized by the afterburner takeoff, the rapid approach to the target and the fast attack.
According to American pilots, the Snap-up method of attacking air targets is the most difficult and much attention is paid to its development.
To repel a massive enemy raid, as reported in the foreign press, air defense fighters are supposed to be brought into battle in three echelons: the first - from the air watch zones (beyond the rear border of the first lane missile defense zones); the second - from airfields from a five-minute readiness (100-120 km from the front line); the third - from 15 minutes readiness. In this case, the group will be guided to the air target by the leader.
Combat training
NATO Command pays great attention to improving the combat readiness of the crews of fighter-interceptors. For this purpose, regular inspections of aviation units and air defense units are carried out, competitions and exercises are organized.For day-to-day training, F-106 interceptor fighters, for example, use the training ground at Tyndall AFB, Florida. Each squadron of these aircraft annually for a week conducts aerial fire there. In addition, on a daily basis, aircraft crews conduct training interceptions of targets flying at high and low altitudes using RPD means.
The NATO command, in addition to individual training of pilots, organizes annual exercises, during which the tasks of air defense of troops and facilities are solved by fighter aircraft. For example, in 1974 such exercises were "Crack Force" and.
The Russian Su-30 fighter was taken into the air to intercept the US reconnaissance aircraft, which was seen over the neutral waters of the Black Sea on November 25 at about 13.00 Moscow time, the press service of the Southern Military District (YuVO) reported.
“Having approached, the Russian fighter flew over the air object and visually identified it as the American P8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft. After its discovery by a Russian fighter, the American P8A Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft changed its trajectory to move away from the airspace of Russia, ”the Southern Military District said. After completing the task, the Russian fighter safely returned to the home airfield.
Thus, the Russian side confirmed the information released earlier by the Pentagon about the interception of the US Navy aircraft during its flight over the Black Sea.
At the same time, the US accused Russia of carrying out an "unsafe" interception.
"The American plane was in international airspace and did nothing to provoke such behavior on the part of Russia," spokeswoman Michelle Baldanza said.
According to her, the actions of the Russian fighter are regarded as unsafe, because the plane crossed the course of the American aircraft from right to left, which led to "severe turbulence." “Unsafe actions could cause serious harm to all involved air crews and result in injury,” she said. Baldanza also added that the interception lasted for about 24 minutes.
Russia's concern about the American plane over the Black Sea is not surprising. In October, the Ministry of Defense reported that 18 aircraft were recorded in a week, conducting reconnaissance along the Russian borders.
12 aircraft were spotted in the Western strategic direction and three more each - in the Arctic and Southwest. In addition, three ships were conducting reconnaissance along the maritime borders of Russia. The aircraft of the Russian Air Defense Forces on duty flew eight times in the last week of October to intercept foreign reconnaissance aircraft.
At the same time, foreign aircraft perform such reconnaissance actions with an enviable regularity - the statistics for the beginning of October were practically the same. Reconnaissance near the borders of Russia was conducted by 10 foreign ships and 17 aircraft. From 2 to 8 October, the air defense forces on duty flew ten sorties to intercept air targets. One of the incidents that week was the flight of the RC-135W strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the British Air Force near the borders of the Kaliningrad region.
According to Western sites tracking military aviation, aircraft with tail number ZZ664 took off from Waddington airbase and, being at an altitude of 9.5 thousand meters, conducted reconnaissance near the coast. The plane's route ran over the North Sea, Denmark and the southern Baltic. On October 3, he was in the airspace of Estonia and carried out long-term reconnaissance near the borders of the Leningrad and Pskov regions.
Russian aviation regularly conducts exercises to prepare for situations where interception is necessary.
At the end of September, large-scale tactical flight exercises began in the Far East, in which the assault, fighter and bomber aircraft of the Eastern Military District (VVO) were involved.
“100 percent of the combat aircraft fleet of the district in Primorye and the Khabarovsk Territory is involved,” the press service of the Air Defense Forces reported about the exercise. During the passage of the Su-24M2 bombers to the bombing area at the practical stage of the exercises, the Su-35 and Su-30 pilots covered them.
In addition, pilots of Su-35, Su-30SM fighters, air units of the Air Defense Forces from the Khabarovsk Territory worked out elements of air combat at various altitudes, searched for, escorted and intercepted enemy aircraft, the role of which was played by fighters from Primorye. As part of the final stage of the exercise, the pilots of the Su-35, Su-25 and the crews of the new Su-34 bombers bombed ground group targets located at special training grounds in Primorye and the Khabarovsk Territory.
The pilots of the Russian air defense fighter aircraft on duty have literally been living in the sky in recent months. NATO aircraft appear at the country's borders more and more often: more than ten times a week, according to the Ministry of Defense. At the same time, the aviation of the "Western partners" is behaving more and more impudently and assertively.
However, serious incidents have so far been avoided, largely thanks to the professionalism and composure of the Russian fighter pilots. About what constitutes an air interception according to all the rules of aviation tactics - in the material of RIA Novosti.
Information confrontation between large states can often expose a routine, in general, situation in a light that is unfavorable for one of the parties.
The crew of the fighter allegedly, for no apparent reason, "cut" the American over the neutral waters of the Black Sea - with a sharp maneuver from right to left, crossed the course of the Poseidon. At the same time, the R-8A was thoroughly "shaken" with jet jets of the powerful Su-30 engines, after which the purely "peaceful" side chose not to get involved with the "bully" and got away.
The version of the Russian Ministry of Defense is much more prosaic. The American plane was moving at high speed towards the Russian state border. A fighter of the air defense forces on duty of the Southern Military District flew to intercept it.
The Su-30 approached the Poseidon, flew over the aircraft, determined its type and nationality. After that, both aircraft went about their business - the R-8A headed for a distance from the Russian borders, and the Su-30 returned to the airbase. In principle, it is difficult to call this event even an interception - they “greeted” and fled.
"Gentleman's" signals
As military experts and civilian analysts have repeatedly argued, the main goal of NATO air reconnaissance missions near Russian borders is to test the strength of air defense forces. How quickly they react, where they are located, what complexes they represent.
Videoconferencing systems react to each such "visit" as quickly as possible.
First, other countries do not need to have such important information.
Secondly, it is a matter of prestige and principle to repulse a military aircraft demonstratively moving towards the border of a sovereign state.
Thirdly, it is not known what order the pilot of the potential intruder received. This means that intercepting it is a matter of national security. As a rule, each air operation is carried out according to a clear scenario.
“First of all, the aircraft must be escorted,” Major General, Honored Military Pilot of Russia Vladimir Popov told RIA Novosti. - The duty fighter approaches the target and goes on a parallel course with it. The main task at this stage is to identify the intruder aircraft.
Further, the interceptor transmits primary information to the "ground": aircraft type, nationality, tail number. Immediately after this, the fighter pilot begins to actively attract the attention of the suspicious aircraft - it is necessary to show that he is under observation.
The pilot, continuing to move in a parallel course, makes a quick roll to the left and to the right - "flaps his wings." On the one hand, it says: "Pay attention, I'm here!" On the other hand, it unambiguously demonstrates air-to-air missiles attached to the suspension under the wings. "
If the intruder does not react in any way, the fighter, keeping the previous course, increases its speed and steps forward a little in order to be guaranteed to be in the visibility zone of the crew of its “counterpart”.
When the pilot is convinced that he is being watched, then by turning the control knob he makes a delicate "nod" away from the state border, hinting that it is time for the stranger to know the honor.
If the intruder does not react, the pilot repeats all the elements in the same sequence, but from the other side of the suspicious aircraft. According to the rules of aviation etiquette, these actions are extremely correct, "gentleman's" signals.
“In most cases, our pilots have no connection with NATO aircraft,” Popov stressed. “We can't talk to the intruder pilot because we usually don't know his radio frequency.
But if we know, then, of course, we continuously “bombard” the airwaves with messages about the inadmissibility of his behavior and we strongly recommend that he change course. In Syria, by the way, Russian and American aircraft are at the very least coordinating their actions and have a common communication channel.
This avoids potential air accidents. But such cooperation is very rare today. "
Impudence or breakdown
Over the past three to four years, the situation in the sky has become more tense. At the initiative of NATO, many programs for interaction between Russian and Western military aviation were curtailed.
If earlier representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance warned the Ministry of Defense about planned flights in countries adjacent to Russia (for example, in the Baltic States), now they prefer to remain silent about them. Moreover, NATO has significantly increased the number of border air operations.
"We do not know in advance who, what and why" sniffs out "at our borders, - the Major General believes. - Maybe the board flies by, maybe it has a breakdown. Or perhaps he deliberately forces us to react, so that later Western politicians would once again declare that the “Russian bear” does not know how to behave in the air.
By the way, if you take on faith the American version of Saturday events, it was their “Poseidon” that was “rude”. If our Su-30 really "cut off" the P-8A and patted it with its jet jets, it means that the "anti-submarine" blatantly ignored all the previous "gentleman's" signals.
And the fighter pilot had to draw the Poseidon's attention to himself in a more aggressive way. I can assume that the American board was going with a slight angle towards our border, so the Russian pilot could decide on such a maneuver. "
If the intruder is not timid and does not frighten him with turbulence, the interceptor "cuts" him again. In parallel, he can request the help of another machine.
Further, two fighters take the reconnaissance plane in "pincers" and accompany it from both sides. If an intruder, even under such an escort, nevertheless crosses the border, the interceptors, with accurate but unambiguous maneuvers, begin to force him to land at a Russian airfield.
The second scenario is that a fighter pilot can show a "yellow card" and open fire along the offender's flight path from a cannon, as well as a combat or signal flare.
This is both a clear threat and the last attempt to attract attention: “Where are you going ?! Turn immediately! " According to Vladimir Popov, similar situations in the 50s of the last century arose on the borders of the USSR on a regular basis.
“I want to emphasize that today such a development of events is a great rarity,” said the lieutenant general. - Pilots of most countries fly politely and still do not cross the border. They provoke, yes. But they know when to stop.
One more point: it is very important to understand that even a military aircraft may experience a failure of radio equipment and navigation systems. And he is in distress, but is unable to give a signal. In this case, we politely "put" him in our place, and then let him go home. "
Viktor Popov recalled how a Russian plane found itself in a similar situation. On September 15, 2005, a group of Su-27 fighters flew from the Siversky airfield in the Leningrad region to one of the air bases near Kaliningrad.
Already on the route, the pilot of one of the cars, Major Valery Troyanov, reported a loss of orientation. Having exhausted the fuel supply, the pilot ejected. It turned out that he was on the territory of Lithuania by mistake. The fighter fell 55 kilometers from Kaunas. During the investigation, it turned out that the causes of the accident were piloting errors, as well as the failure of the navigation system.
The pilot, fortunately, survived. A high-profile international scandal was avoided - it was obvious to specialists that the plane had crossed the border unintentionally. However, this incident provoked a scandal in Lithuania when it became clear that the "invasion" of the Russian "drying" remained unnoticed by the national air defense.
The last argument
However, we must not forget that cross-border incidents in the air can end up much more tragically.
“The fighter pilot has to open fire to kill only if the foreign aircraft violated the airspace, did not react to the previous signals and refuses to follow the convoy,” explains Vladimir Popov.
The pilot asks for "ground" and, if he receives the appropriate order, shoots down the target. The most striking example: On November 28, 1973, an Iranian Air Force reconnaissance aircraft RF-4C, piloted by Iranian and American pilots, from Turkey invaded Soviet airspace through Armenia and Georgia.
In the region of Georgia, our MiG-21SM fighter under the control of Captain Gennady Eliseev took off to intercept. He had two missiles. He sent one along the flight path of the enemy aircraft as a warning.
He did not turn away. Eliseev struck with a second missile to kill, but it lost its target in the clouds. And the cannon is jammed.
An order was received from the ground to stop the enemy at any cost. It was unknown what equipment and weapons the intruder was carrying and what its purpose was. And Eliseev decided on the last argument. He took the enemy into a ram, hitting his plane from below. The Soviet captain was killed and the RF-4C crew ejected and captured on the ground. Later they were exchanged for our scouts.
This case is the first air ram in a supersonic aircraft in the history of aviation. Western pilots scouring the Russian borders today should remember him more often. "
The Tu-95 is not just an airplane, it is a visiting card of our long-range strategic aviation. Probably this is the only aircraft in Russia that has overcome the half-century milestone and is still in service. I was prompted to write this post by my night dream :), in which there was a Tu-95. After I woke up, I immediately went to the Internet, look for photographs of this plane. Which I throw off below, these are not just a photo of an airplane, but photographs of a Tu-95 with escort, not with a simple one, but with a foreign one :).
Tu-95 is a Soviet turboprop strategic bomber-missile carrier, the fastest propeller-driven aircraft that has become one of the symbols of the Cold War.
2. Possibly the Faroe-Icelandic border, around 1960-1970. Reconnaissance target designator Tu-95RTs of the 392nd ODRAP aviation of the Red Banner Northern Fleet, A / B Kipelovo, Vologda and Lightning F.6 XP 753 British Royal Air Force, 23 squadron, Leichers airbase, Scotland. This aircraft was in service from 1965 to 1988. By the way, the 392nd Regiment, in particular, is known for the first autopsy of CVN 70 "Karl Vinson". Many thanks for the information and corrections to this post. ilya_kramnik
The world's only adopted and mass-produced turboprop bomber. Designed to destroy important targets behind enemy lines with cruise missiles at any time of the day and in all weather conditions. Along with the American B-52 strategic bomber, the Tu-95 is one of the few military aircraft that have been in service continuously for more than half a century.
3. Deck fighter Vought F-8 Crusader and the hero of the Tu-95 post. 
On July 30, 2010, a world record for a non-stop flight was set for aircraft of this class - in 43 hours, bombers flew about 30 thousand kilometers over three oceans, refueling four times in the air
4. I did not find a year. Tu-95 and Grumman A-6 Intruder, we help you with the year! 
There are many modifications of this aircraft, of which I will single out only one - Tu-142 - anti-submarine aircraft.
5.180. F-4E and Tu-95 
The mastering and operation of the aircraft was accompanied by significant difficulties. The cockpit was poorly adapted for long flights. Uncomfortable seats and toilet - a portable cistern with a toilet seat, dryness and pollution of the air with oil dust - all this led to premature fatigue of the crews. In the modification of the Tu-95MS, some of the shortcomings have been corrected.
5.182. By the way, in the photo there is not a Tu-95, but a Tu-16, accompanied by a carrier-based attack aircraft Grumman A-6 Intruder. 
Particular problems arose during the operation of the aircraft in the winter. A mixture of mineral oils (MS-20 and MK-8) is poured into the oil system of the NK-12 engines, which thickens at temperatures below 0 degrees so that the screws cannot be turned. Therefore, before each flight, all engines were warmed up by ground engine heaters (heat guns). In their absence (for example, at an operational airfield), the motors were covered with heat-insulating covers and started every few hours to warm up. Much of the aviation fuel was thus wasted. At the end of the 1980s, the industry began to produce a special motor oil - MN-7.5U, which allows starting NK-12 engines in frosts down to -25 degrees. Today, the production of this oil is practically curtailed. On some of the modified Tu-95MS, an auxiliary power unit is installed in the forkil, which allows air to be bled for pre-flight heating of the engines.
6.1982 F-4S and Tu-142 
Replacing the NK-12 engine is extremely time consuming in comparison with other types of aviation technology, has a lot of features, requires certain qualifications of personnel and special skills.
The plane still lacks a crew ejection system, which seriously complicates the escape of the falling plane in the event of an accident.
7. Tu-95RTs and F-106 
After the collapse of the USSR, it was possible to overtake the shelves from Kazakhstan to Russia. In 1998, Ukraine began to destroy the strategic bombers it inherited with funds allocated by the United States under the Nunn-Lugar program, but after negotiations, Ukraine transferred to Russia eight Tu-160 and three Tu-95 (and a batch of cruise missiles) in exchange for writing off part of the debt on gas purchases. Three Tu-95MS aircraft, one of which is now playing the role of a museum piece, have been left in Ukraine, all the rest have been disposed of.
8.F / A-18 of the Canadian Navy and Tu-95. 
For 2011, only 32 Tu-95MS are combat-ready. Several dozen will be upgraded to the Tu95MSM version from 2013, they will be capable of carrying Kh-101 missiles, and will serve until 2020-2025.
9. Tu-95RTs and F-14 
In the period from April 22 to May 3, 2007, two Russian Tu-95MS aircraft became participants in an incident that occurred during the British Army's Neptune Warrior exercise in the Clyde Bay of the North Sea near the Hebrides. Russian aircraft appeared in the area of the exercises (conducted in neutral waters), after which two British fighters were raised from the Luashar airbase in the Scottish Fife region. The fighters accompanied the Russian planes until they left the area of the exercise. This was the first such incident since the end of the Cold War, according to a British Air Force spokesman.
10. 06.03.1986. The Tu-142M is escorted by the US Navy P-3C patrol aircraft. 
In August 2007, the Tu-95MS flew as part of an exercise near the US Navy base on the island of Guam in the Pacific Ocean, in July - in the immediate vicinity of the British air border over the North Sea, and on September 6, British fighters had to meet eight Russian bombers at once.
11. F-14A or F-14D strategic bomber Tu-95. 
On the night of February 9-10, 2008, four Tu-95s took off from the Ukrainka airbase. Two of them flew close to the air border of Japan and one of them, according to the statements of the Japanese side, which later put forward a note of protest, violated the border for three minutes. The second pair of aircraft headed towards the aircraft carrier "Nimitz". When Russian aircraft were about 800 km away from the ship, four F / A-18s were raised to intercept. At a distance of 80 km from the aircraft carrier group, American aircraft intercepted the Tu-95, but despite this, one of the "bears" twice passed over the "Nimitz" at an altitude of about 600 meters.
12. F-14 Tomcat and Tu-142. 
Such incidents in international waters began to occur quite often after the resumption in August 2007 of regular flights of strategic aviation on air patrols. The press usually covers each such case, and in NATO countries such incidents are considered "provocations in the spirit of the Cold War."
13.
US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that if the Tu-95s are still flying, they are “in good working order,” saying that “I don’t think we see this as a particular threat, but we are monitoring it, watching closely. and I'm sure the Pentagon is watching this too. "
14.
In 2013, the modernization of the Tu-95MS to the Tu-95MSM version will begin. The electronic equipment will undergo replacement, while the airframe and engines will not undergo modifications. A new sighting and navigation system will be installed on the bombers, which will make it possible to use the new Kh-101 strategic cruise missiles. A navigation complex based on GLONASS will also appear. In total, it is planned to modernize several dozen bombers, and the rest are to be written off. The modernization is designed to extend the life of the aircraft until 2025.
15. Let's help with the definition again! In foreign planes, I do not understand anything. I can only recognize such well-known aircraft as Valkyrie, F-117, B-2 and of course Blackbird. 
16. 09.01.2008. Tu-95 accompanied by F / A-18 flies over the aircraft carrier "Nimitz". 
In the photo below: On November 29, 2007, American F-22 Raptor fighters carried out for the first time a conditional interception of Russian Tu-95MS strategic bombers. Russian targets were spotted at long range by US radars in Alaska. One of the "bears", which happened to be a short distance from the airspace of Alaska near the Aleutian Islands, was intercepted and accompanied within a few minutes by two Raptor fighters of the 3rd tactical wing. Presumably, the "violator" on Thanksgiving Day was a personalized Tu-95MS Blagoveshchensk bomber assigned to the 326th Heavy Bomber Aviation Division (Ukrainka, Amur Oblast). The planes of the two air regiments of this division are periodically transferred to the northern airfields of the "jump" Anadyr and Tiksi for flights, as the pilots say, "around the corner."
17.29.11.2007. Near the Aleutian Islands. F-22A of the 3rd Air Wing, US Air Force, Elmendorf Air Base, Alaska, and Tu-95MS 326 TBAD, A / B Ukrainka, Amur Oblast. 
