This makes me feel all warm and fuzzy

[Zundfolge]

source (with pictures, videos and links to sources) (http://www.voltairenet.org/article185860.html)


What frightened the USS Donald Cook so much in the Black Sea?
Voltaire Network | 8 November 2014

The State Department acknowledged that the crew of the destroyer USS Donald Cook has been gravely demoralized ever since their vessel was flown over in the Black Sea by a Russian Sukhoi-24 (Su-24) fighter jet which carried neither bombs nor missiles but only an electronic warfare device.

On 10 April 2014, the USS Donald Cook entered the waters of the Black Sea and on 12 April a Russian Su-24 tactical bomber flew over the vessel triggering an incident that, according to several media reports, completely demoralized its crew, so much so that the Pentagon issued a protest.

The USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) is a 4th generation guided missile destroyer whose key weapons are Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and capable of carrying nuclear explosives. This ship carries 56 Tomahawk missiles in standard mode, and 96 missiles in attack mode.

The US destroyer is equipped with the most recent Aegis Combat System. It is an integrated naval weapons systems which can link together the missile defense systems of all vessels embedded within the same network, so as to ensure the detection, tracking and destruction of hundreds of targets at the same time. In addition, the USS Donald Cook is equipped with 4 large radars, whose power is comparable to that of several stations. For protection, it carries more than fifty anti-aircraft missiles of various types.

Meanwhile, the Russian Su-24 that buzzed the USS Donald Cook carried neither bombs nor missiles but only a basket mounted under the fuselage, which, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, contained a Russian electronic warfare device called Khibiny.

As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. In other words, the all-powerful Aegis system, now hooked up - or about to be - with the defense systems installed on NATO’s most modern ships was shut down, as turning off the TV set with the remote control.

The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft - unarmed - repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away.

After that, the 4th generation destroyer immediately set sail towards a port in Romania.

Since that incident, which the Atlanticist media have carefully covered up despite the widespread reactions sparked among defense industry experts, no US ship has ever approached Russian territorial waters again.

According to some specialized media, 27 sailors from the USS Donald Cook requested to be relieved from active service.

Vladimir Balybine - director of the research center on electronic warfare and the evaluation of so-called "visibility reduction" techniques attached to the Russian Air Force Academy - made the following comment:
"The more a radio-electronic system is complex, the easier it is to disable it through the use of electronic warfare."

[KestrelBike]

hahahaha According to some specialized media, 27 sailors from the USS Donald Cook requested to be relieved from active service.

That right there took the Derp over the top.

[thvigil11]

I think we as a country have grossly miscalculated what has transpired in the Old Soviet territories for the past 30 or so years. Its not like the hardliners and true believers just gave up in 89. I firmly believe they went underground and have been worming through the system ever since. I feel we are in greater danger of WW3 now than we ever were in the Cold War years.

[buffalobo]

A French news web site?

I notice there is no source listed for the State Department acknowledement.

Gonna throw the BS flag until a more reliable source can be found.

[ChadAmberg]

They have a new model Cylon in that basket apparently.

[two shoes]

Another source the incident took place, not a lot of details though... http://libertyunyielding.com/2014/04/14/half-mcnamara-russian-attack-jet-buzzes-u-s-navy-destroyer/

[Hound]

Nice..... That about sums it up. Funny how often fiction becomes reality. After 911, the pentagon went to Hollywood to give the writers a crack at updating their threat estimations. Nobody had ever thought about a simple Kamikaze attack with a passenger jet. If you can think it somebody out there will try to build it. BSG started with the armada being wiped out through a cyber attack that left it open to being fish in a barrel. I doubt any of us would be surprised if this happened to us.

On that note... I think I will just keep my guns around..... Just in case ;)


They have a new model Cylon in that basket apparently.

[thvigil11]

If the Russians have developed Cyclons, then I'll shortly be ordering a couple of 6's, and 8 and a 3. [Evil]

[Rucker61]

Nice..... That about sums it up. Funny how often fiction becomes reality. After 911, the pentagon went to Hollywood to give the writers a crack at updating their threat estimations. Nobody had ever thought about a simple Kamikaze attack with a passenger jet.

Tom Clancy did.

[Bailey Guns]

I don't believe that story for a minute.

[Zundfolge]

Which story? The original post about the Russians buzzing the Donald Cook, the story that Hollywood was contacted by the fed.gov after 9/11 to update threat estimations or the one that Tom Clancy thought about hijacking airliners and flying them into buildings before 9/11 happened?

[Bailey Guns]

The story in the OP.

[Justin]

1.) Hardening US military assets against electronic warfare attacks has been SOP since the 1960s.
2.) Were we in a real shooting war with the Russians, such an aircraft would have been smoked long before it ever got close enough to deploy it's little basket of tricks.
3.) Even if this thing worked as advertised, and the Russians managed to disable one of our ships with such a device, it wouldn't take long before new orders would be dispatched to blow any Russian aircraft out of the sky as soon as they were detected.

[Ah Pook]

I'm with the IKEA lover.

[hurley842002]

I'm with the IKEA lover.
You mean this gentleman....?

I don't believe that story for a minute.

[Guylee]

1.) Hardening US military assets against electronic warfare attacks has been SOP since the 1960s.
2.) Were we in a real shooting war with the Russians, such an aircraft would have been smoked long before it ever got close enough to deploy it's little basket of tricks.
3.) Even if this thing worked as advertised, and the Russians managed to disable one of our ships with such a device, it wouldn't take long before new orders would be dispatched to blow any Russian aircraft out of the sky as soon as they were detected.

Yuuuuuup.

[Bailey Guns]

The USS Donald Cook was in the Black Sea during the period. There was an SU-24 in the area that approached within 1000 yds of the US ship and a second SU-24 that stayed a little further away (as reported by Stars & Stripes).

I don't know a lot about electronic warfare but I know the story is bullshit from a common sense standpoint. The Donald Cook was conducting exercises with Romanian navy personnel on board. It stands to reason the ship would return to a Romanian port. And 27 US Navy sailors "resigning"? Yeah, right. If anything they'd be bitching about not being able to splash a couple of 60s-70s vintage Russian attack planes. The SU-24, in all it's variants including the modern ones, doesn't have a combat history to brag about. They're in use in a lot of Arab and other 3rd world countries and have routinely been shot down by pretty unsophisticated systems...and some pretty sophisticated systems, too. The Israelis shot down a Syrian SU-24 not too long ago after it strayed 800m into Israeli airspace.

I suppose it's possible...and likely, of course...that the Russians have improved their EW capabilities since I was in (keeping developments in US and Russian capabilities in perspective over the last 20 years) but I'd bet money they don't have the capability of putting a system small enough to be carried on an SU-24 that can disable all electronic systems on an Aegis-equipped ship.

Besides...how would they know they'd done all that? Even from analyzing electronic emissions from the ship I don't think they could tell all of those systems were disabled. Furthermore, if the Russians had a system with this capability, I can't see them advertising it openly like this. That's just not their style unless things have really changed. Why would any potential enemy give away that sort of incredibly important information just so the American navy could devise a way to counter it?

The most likely scenario? The Russians are putting out propaganda to try to persuade Poland and other nearby countries looking to purchase their own missile defense system.

[buffalobo]

The USS Donald Cook was in the Black Sea during the period. There was an SU-24 in the area that approached within 1000 yds of the US ship and a second SU-24 that stayed a little further away (as reported by Stars & Stripes).

I don't know a lot about electronic warfare but I know the story is bullshit from a common sense standpoint. The Donald Cook was conducting exercises with Romanian navy personnel on board. It stands to reason the ship would return to a Romanian port. And 27 US Navy sailors "resigning"? Yeah, right. If anything they'd be bitching about not being able to splash a couple of 60s-70s vintage Russian attack planes. The SU-24, in all it's variants including the modern ones, doesn't have a combat history to brag about. They're in use in a lot of Arab and other 3rd world countries and have routinely been shot down by pretty unsophisticated systems...and some pretty sophisticated systems, too. The Israelis shot down a Syrian SU-24 not too long ago after it strayed 800m into Israeli airspace.

I suppose it's possible...and likely, of course...that the Russians have improved their EW capabilities since I was in (keeping developments in US and Russian capabilities in perspective over the last 20 years) but I'd bet money they don't have the capability of putting a system small enough to be carried on an SU-24 that can disable all electronic systems on an Aegis-equipped ship.

Besides...how would they know they'd done all that? Even from analyzing electronic emissions from the ship I don't think they could tell all of those systems were disabled. Furthermore, if the Russians had a system with this capability, I can't see them advertising it openly like this. That's just not their style unless things have really changed. Why would any potential enemy give away that sort of incredibly important information just so the American navy could devise a way to counter it?

The most likely scenario? The Russians are putting out propaganda to try to persuade Poland and other nearby countries looking to purchase their own missile defense system.
^^^This. Thanks for the logic and reason.

[Zundfolge]

The most likely scenario? The Russians are putting out propaganda to try to persuade Poland and other nearby countries looking to purchase their own missile defense system.

I prefer to believe that.

[TFOGGER]

Hmmm...they disable all the electronic whiz bangs, some swabbie blows their SU-24 out of the sky with a pintle mounted M2. All is well with the world again. [ROFL1]

[Ranger353]

The USS Donald Cook was in the Black Sea during the period. There was an SU-24 in the area that approached within 1000 yds of the US ship and a second SU-24 that stayed a little further away (as reported by Stars & Stripes).

I don't know a lot about electronic warfare but I know the story is bullshit from a common sense standpoint. The Donald Cook was conducting exercises with Romanian navy personnel on board. It stands to reason the ship would return to a Romanian port. And 27 US Navy sailors "resigning"? Yeah, right. If anything they'd be bitching about not being able to splash a couple of 60s-70s vintage Russian attack planes. The SU-24, in all it's variants including the modern ones, doesn't have a combat history to brag about. They're in use in a lot of Arab and other 3rd world countries and have routinely been shot down by pretty unsophisticated systems...and some pretty sophisticated systems, too. The Israelis shot down a Syrian SU-24 not too long ago after it strayed 800m into Israeli airspace.

I suppose it's possible...and likely, of course...that the Russians have improved their EW capabilities since I was in (keeping developments in US and Russian capabilities in perspective over the last 20 years) but I'd bet money they don't have the capability of putting a system small enough to be carried on an SU-24 that can disable all electronic systems on an Aegis-equipped ship.

Besides...how would they know they'd done all that? Even from analyzing electronic emissions from the ship I don't think they could tell all of those systems were disabled. Furthermore, if the Russians had a system with this capability, I can't see them advertising it openly like this. That's just not their style unless things have really changed. Why would any potential enemy give away that sort of incredibly important information just so the American navy could devise a way to counter it?

The most likely scenario? The Russians are putting out propaganda to try to persuade Poland and other nearby countries looking to purchase their own missile defense system.

+1 And to pile on to this: if such an EW device did exist, the RF energy it emitted would most certainly fuck-up the pilot of such a small aircraft. This is just bullshit Russian propaganda.

[HoneyBadger]

This is complete BS. Anyone who knows anything about electricity, communications, or EM energy should immediately be able to smell this stink from a mile away.


As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer.

First of all, this is super vague. The only commonality between "radars, control circuits, systems (whatever the heck that means?? Did it take down the engine systems? The comm systems? The toilet systems?) and information transmission" is electric power. So we are to believe that this little outdated fighter jet took down the electrical power systems for an entire Arleigh Burke-class destroyer with some magic trick?

Second, assuming the story is true, the only known system that could have such an effect would be an EMP generator, but creating an EMP strong enough to take down the EMP-hardened systems on the USS Donald Cook would require massive amounts of energy.... As technology stands today, even a small EMP generator (of the non-nuclear variety) requires a fairly large chemical explosive to kickstart the EMP. Oh yeah, that explosion would have also taken down the SU-24. And an EMP would have taken down the SU-24. And an SU-24 couldn't carry a payload that heavy. And EMP generators require massive amounts of electricity: hundreds of millions of volts to be able to affect anything from 1000+ yds away, especially a hardened warship.

ETA: After some more thought, there is ONE other type of weapon that can cause these effects: a High-Power Microwave. Our Air Force Research Laberatory, along with Boeing, has recently (sucessfully) tested such a weapon, but I don't think the Russians are anywhere close. In most other tech fields, they are still 5-15 years behind us. It would be very surprising if they have this technology, and even more surprising for them to test it on a foreign operational military ship. That would go a little ways beyond "strategic posturing".

[hahhah-no]

[68Charger]

They learned this trick from Pres. Reagan... we didn't really have the technology to deploy SDI (Star Wars as it was commonly known)... but the Russians bought that we could.

[speedysst]

Clancy also thought of the terrorist infiltration through Mexico in Teeth of the Tiger.
Which story? The original post about the Russians buzzing the Donald Cook, the story that Hollywood was contacted by the fed.gov after 9/11 to update threat estimations or the one that Tom Clancy thought about hijacking airliners and flying them into buildings before 9/11 happened?

[ChunkyMonkey]

Never believe anything that RT puts out.

[clublights]

Hmmm...they disable all the electronic whiz bangs, some swabbie blows their SU-24 out of the sky with a pintle mounted M2. All is well with the world again. [ROFL1]


Makes me think of this scene ( with Indy being our intrepid swabby At the Ma Deuce .... )



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YyBtMxZgQs

[Gman]

Tom Clancy did.

So did I. As soon as the equipment used hit the news, I noticed they were all large aircraft on transcontinental flights (larger fuel loads).

With asymmetrical warfare, anything is an option.

Sent from my electronic leash.

[sellersm]

With asymmetrical warfare, anything is an option.

There ya go. </endthread>

[Ronin13]

The Russians have a Goldeneye weapon? And they mounted it onto an SU-24, and said SU-24 didn't crash from it's own EMP emissions? [Eek3] That's kind of what the original article sounded like... Only thing I know of that can affect that many systems is an EMP attack. That article is total BS. I concur with the sentiment that it's a propaganda campaign by our Ruskie friends. Hey, did you hear the one about China and Russia's leaders giving Obama the stink eye? That one isn't BS.

[HoneyBadger]

The Russians have a Goldeneye weapon? And they mounted it onto an SU-24, and said SU-24 didn't crash from it's own EMP emissions? [Eek3] That's kind of what the original article sounded like... Only thing I know of that can affect that many systems is an EMP attack. That article is total BS. I concur with the sentiment that it's a propaganda campaign by our Ruskie friends. Hey, did you hear the one about China and Russia's leaders giving Obama the stink eye? That one isn't BS.
While I don't want to lend any undue credit to the article, as I edited my post above to add, High Power Microwave weapons are very real and very capable of inflicting that type of damage... But they are very hard to design, build, power, miniaturize, etc. I very seriously doubt Ruskie has any HPM packages to mount on an SU-24 and I more seriously doubt that they would use it on a US warship. That alone is an act of war.

[Aloha_Shooter]

1. The Pentagon would have protested a close fly-by like that regardless of the "demoralized crew" claimed in this stupid article.
2. I think it would be far more likely the pod slung under the SU-24 was an ELINT collector than an EW emitter, with the idea being probing our reaction to the fly-by and collect any radar signals used for analysis later. It could even have been a distractor for a different platform that had the actual weapon (if there was one).
3. If it shut down all circuitry and information systems, just how did the highly computerized ship make way for the Romanian port?
4. I'd bet the crew of the Donald Cook is laughing themselves silly over this "news" report (if they've even seen it).

[HoneyBadger]

1. The Pentagon would have protested a close fly-by like that regardless of the "demoralized crew" claimed in this stupid article.
2. I think it would be far more likely the pod slung under the SU-24 was an ELINT collector than an EW emitter, with the idea being probing our reaction to the fly-by and collect any radar signals used for analysis later. It could even have been a distractor for a different platform that had the actual weapon (if there was one).
3. If it shut down all circuitry and information systems, just how did the highly computerized ship make way for the Romanian port?
4. I'd bet the crew of the Donald Cook is laughing themselves silly over this "news" report (if they've even seen it).
[Awesom]

[centrarchidae]

After 911, the pentagon went to Hollywood to give the writers a crack at updating their threat estimations. Nobody had ever thought about a simple Kamikaze attack with a passenger jet.

Nobody? http://www.amazon.com/Debt-Honor-Jack-Ryan-Clancy/dp/0425147584

[45XD]

Such a warm, sweet, peaceful people. They only whacked 30 million of their own under Stalin, spread communism all over the world, and gave us that cool guy Putin to make Barry look like a spineless, rabble-rousing, back-stabbing, coward.

Fixed it for you....