{"id":41613,"date":"2019-09-24T17:42:20","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T17:42:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/09\/24\/unsafe-intercepts-involving-nato-aircraft-have-decreased-and-often-are-the-result-of-a-hot-dogging-pilot-top-general-says\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:36:57","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:36:57","slug":"unsafe-intercepts-involving-nato-aircraft-have-decreased-and-often-are-the-result-of-a-hot-dogging-pilot-top-general-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/09\/24\/unsafe-intercepts-involving-nato-aircraft-have-decreased-and-often-are-the-result-of-a-hot-dogging-pilot-top-general-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Unsafe intercepts involving NATO aircraft have decreased, and often are the result of a \u2018hot-dogging\u2019 pilot, top general says"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Aug. 8, Canadian and American fighter jets intercepted two Russian nuclear-capable bombers off the coast of Alaska, according to the North American Aerospace Defense Command.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-military\/2019\/08\/11\/russia-says-its-bombers-escorted-by-us-jets-over-bering-sea\/\" target=\"_blank\">two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers<\/a> were identified and intercepted by two F-22 and two CF-18 fighters that were supported by an E-3 Sentry, a KC-135 and a C-130, NORAD tweeted in early August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While alarming, NATO\u2019s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/news\/your-air-force\/2019\/05\/22\/russian-fighters-bombers-intercepted-off-alaska-for-2nd-day-in-a-row-5th-time-this-year\/\" target=_blank>unsafe intercepts between NATO and Russian aircraft<\/a> have decreased over the past two years, and are in most cases safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When those intercepts are not safe, the NATO commander explained that its usually the result of a pilot who was \u201chot-dogging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhat I can assure this audience is that well over 99 percent of the intercepts that occur in the air are actually safe,\u201d Wolters told audience members during the June 27 German Marshall Fund\u2019s Brussels Forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn many of the cases where they\u2019re unsafe, when you take a look at the experience level of the operators that were involved, it typically turns into a young man or woman that was probably just hot-dogging it a little bit more than they should,\u201d Wolters said at the forum.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/navytimes\/news\/your-navy\/2019\/06\/05\/whats-up-with-a-russian-jet-buzzing-a-navy-patrol-plane-again\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/P8.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">What\u2019s up with a Russian jet buzzing a Navy patrol plane again?<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">The latest incident occurred in international airspace over the Mediterranean Sea, 6th Fleet announced.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Wolters said that NATO has tracked every intercept for the past four years, and that thousands of intercepts have occurred over international waters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOn very rare occasion they are unsafe, and we\u2019ve seen over the course of the last two years that the frequency of those unsafe intercepts has actually diminished tremendously,\u201d Wolters said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NATO officials would not provide the intercept data to Military Times, citing that the figures were not public or recorded centrally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cNATO aircraft routinely intercept Russian military aircraft that fly close to our borders, which are not following international air safety norms \u2014 such as filing flight plans and communicating with air traffic control \u2014 or which are of interest to NATO,\u201d a NATO official told Military Times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But, Wolters said at the Brussels forum that \u201cfor every one intercept that a Russian aviator commits against a NATO aircraft, we actually have three NATO intercepts that are committed against a Russian aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWhen I say that we have 3 to 1, that gives you a little bit of a feel for the readiness disposition of your NATO force. It\u2019s resilient and responsive,\u201d Wolters told audience members in June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On June 4, the U.S. Navy\u2019s 6th Fleet said a Russian SU-35 conducted an unsafe intercept of a P-8A Poseidon over the Mediterranean Sea. The Russian aircraft conducted a \u201chigh speed pass directly in front\u201d of the P-8, a news release detailed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The P-8 reported turbulence from the intercept, and the Navy characterized the incident as \u201cirresponsible,\u201d according to the news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">According to the Associated Press, a Russian Sukhoi Su-34 fighter briefly violated Estonia\u2019s airspace on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Russian fighter spent less than a minute in Estonia airspace near the Baltic Sea island of Vaindloo, according to AP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AP reported that the plane\u2019s transponder was switch off and that it was the second violation of Estonia\u2019s airspace by Russia this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cAllies provide well-trained and experienced pilots for NATO missions. Our pilots act in a de-escalatory and defensive manner to avoid misunderstandings, accidents, and unsafe situations,\u201d a NATO official told Military Times.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIn many of the cases where they\u2019re unsafe, when you take a look at the experience level of the operators that were involved, it typically turns into a young man or woman that was probably just hot-dogging it a little bit more than they should.&#8221; &#8211; U.S. Air Force Gen. Tod Wolters, NATO\u2019s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and commander of U.S. European Command<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":84346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":8,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,8,23,92,93,12,25,69],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3398],"class_list":["post-41613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-home","category-left-column","category-middle-column","category-news","category-newsletters","category-your-marine-corps"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"RUYJMC3IGVCU3D326SKM5QZMNY","arc_canonical_url":"\/flashpoints\/2019\/09\/24\/unsafe-intercepts-involving-nato-aircraft-have-decreased-and-often-are-the-result-of-a-hot-dogging-pilot-top-general-says\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Unsafe intercepts involving NATO aircraft have decreased, and often are the result of a \u2018hot-dogging\u2019 pilot, top general says - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u201cIn many of the cases where they\u2019re unsafe, when you take a look at the experience level of the operators that were involved, it typically turns into a young man or woman that was probably just hot-dogging it a little bit more than they should.&quot; - U.S. Air Force Gen. 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