Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ncis.llnl.gov!helios.ee.lbl.gov!pasteur!ucbvax!decwrl!labrea!rutgers!att!cbnews!stiatl!meo@gatech.edu
From: stiatl!meo@gatech.edu (Miles O'Neal)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Airspace penetration
Message-ID: <3284@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 20 Jan 89 05:04:58 GMT
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Sales Technologies Inc., Atlanta, GA
Lines: 31
Approved: military@att.att.com


>The Canadian and US Forces make a regular habit of greeting Soviet
>aircraft that approach this continent.  A few months ago, a letter from
>the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa was published in the Globe & Mail.  It
>protested that an earlier article on this subject was misleading: that
>in fact the Soviets had *never* broken Canadian airspace.  That
>statement went unchallenged.
>
>Can any sci.military reader confirm or deny this claim?  And does the
>same hold true for US airspace?  To avoid a flood of interception
>anecdotes, please remember that ``airspace'' is almost the same as
>``over land''; flights that only come within a few tens of kilometres

I thought it included the air over "our waters", ie, the 12 mile
territorial limit.

>remain within international jurisdiction.  Solid references would be
>appreciated.

If you check any decent-sized libraries, there should be several books
of at least one of the following types: pilot's personal recollections,
or recent air history. I can't cite the books offhand, but several
that I've read described these "routine" flights where we intercept the
Soviet craft over Alaskan waters and escort them home. Over land, I
can't recall, but those guys move pretty quickly; that 12 miles (used
to be 3) disappears REAL fast at average combat jet cruising speeds.
I assume we do the same tests, but somehow the books never say that
for sure!!!

-Miles
gatech!stiatl!meo