Thanks for the article Samar!
via India Today.
INS Vikramaditya, India's largest aircraft carrier, is safely in the Indian Navy's hands now, and will begin its journey home shortly. But just a year ago, there was an incident that created a major stir on board the massive ship as it was put through trials at sea off the Russian coast.I find this interesting on a couple of levels.
INS Vikramaditya was spied upon by NATO forces.
Headlines Today Deputy Editor Shiv Aroor, the first Indian journalist on board the aircraft carrier, has accessed exclusive images of that disturbing incident that was even taken up at the diplomatic level.
The images show a NATO maritime spy aircraft repeatedly buzzing.
Over INS Vikramaditya in an attempt to snoop on her communications and combat signatures. Never before revealed, these images captured from the deck of the ship show how the US-built P-3C Orion "buzzed" the ship just a few hundred feet over her deck and circled her in an attempt to harvest classified electronic and acoustic data about the vessel.
The snooping operation created such a stir that the Russian team on board the Vikramaditya summoned a Russian Navy MiG-29K from a shore base to chase away the intruding aircraft.
The spy aircraft beat a hasty retreat once the MiG-29K arrived on the scene.
First, its incredibly sloppy. The trials of the ship were announced and a sub could have gotten any data necessary.
Second, this will not help NATO and by extension the US when it comes to India relations. Friends might spy on each other without issue inside NATO but our other allies take a dim view of this sort of thing. The Indian people will not be happy with this.
And finally what is happening inside our intelligence agencies...both civilian and military. The lack of professionalism (as in getting the job done without fanfare or discovery) is nowhere to be seen. I don't know what the problem is but we're seeing the disintegration of our nations most important institutions (those designed to defend the nation) right before our eyes.
If he was on international waters, then any plane could fly over it. I would not say that in the moment of close circle P-3C gather any info that he have not gather before. It was rather a show off.
ReplyDeleteA sloopy, immature and stupid show off.
The Soviets regularly buzzed our ship with everything from CG and DD in the air Bears and MiGs I recall once when a double meshing rotor ASW helo hovered right off the deck and the pilot waved Hi.
ReplyDeleteShowing off like MMA fighters before a match.
Normally the Air assets were escorted from miles out and flew by with an F4F Phantom or F-8 Crusader tucked under each wing.
The Helo was run off by the ships own ASW choppers.
Australia has been doing this for years in the Indian Ocean (the F111 was great for it flying out of Malaysia), particularly when they got new Russian kit.
ReplyDeleteAccoustic signature? You've got to be kidding me. No idiot would fly a P-3 just to get accoustic signature when this is a job exclusively for a sub. Heck, if you have one gutsy sub driver, he/she could take the underside pictures of the ship.
ReplyDeleteEW? Same thing, sub can lurk under and raise the ESM mast.