-Caveat Lector-
December 7, 2000
U.S. ship took 40 minutes to respond to order
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The carrier USS Kitty Hawk took 40 minutes to launch its first
plane after its commander ordered a response to approaching
Russian warplanes that buzzed directly over the carrier's conning
tower, Navy sources say.
Their account contradicts an official version of the Oct. 17
incident in the Sea of Japan and a subsequent Russian flyover
while the Kitty Hawk's crew underwent training in international
waters near Russia.
Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon on Nov. 30 quoted the Navy as
telling him, "In both cases, the planes were acquired by the
battle group's radar at a considerable distance, and in both
cases, interceptors were put into the air and the planes
maintained a suitable distance away from the Kitty Hawk."
But two Navy sources say that in the first incident, the Russian
planes, an Su-27 Flanker and Su-24 Fencer, flew directly over the
Kitty Hawk's tower. One source said they swooped to 200 feet;
another Navy official said "several hundred feet."
>From the moment the commander ordered planes launched, it took 40
minutes to scramble aircraft.
The first to launch was an EA-6B Prowler, an electronic warfare
jet unsuitable for intercepting, one Navy source said. Later,
F-18s went airborne to cut off the two Russian planes. A Navy
official disputed this, saying he was told that F-18 Hornets were
the first to launch.
A retired Navy captain, who flew jets over the Sea of Japan, said
the launch or "alert" time should have been 15 minutes in a
strategic area bordered by North Korea, Russia and Japan.
"They didn't have the right alert status for where they were,"
the retired officer said. "It should have been a lot shorter
alert time."
Kitty Hawk commanders were so unnerved by the aerial penetration
they rotated squadrons on 24-hour alert and had planes routinely
meet or intercept various aircraft.
The Russians were so proud of the maneuver they e-mailed the
Kitty Hawk pictures the planes captured while passing over the
ship and its warplanes. A Navy official confirmed, "Yes, there
were e-mails with pictures sent to the ship."
Mr. Bacon said Nov. 30 that, "I think in the first incident
there may have been a slight delay in the dispatch of
interceptors because the Kitty Hawk . . . was in the process
of refueling and therefore was not going fast enough at the
moment of refueling to launch planes."
"In neither case," he added, "did the Navy feel that its
operations had been compromised in any way. . . . I think
it's the type of event that allows the U.S. Navy to show how
prepared it is to respond and how quick it is to respond."
The Navy was criticized by members of the Senate Armed Services
Committee for releasing inaccurate information about events
leading up to the Oct. 12 terrorist bombing of the USS Cole.
The Navy first said the destroyer was attacked by a boat whose
occupants posed as harbor workers and helped the ship moor to an
in-harbor refueling island.
After briefing that version on Capitol Hill, the Navy changed the
chronology. It said that, in fact, the Cole was already tied up
and was in the process of refueling when the terrorists
approached.
The change is significant because the revised time line raises
questions about what steps the Cole's commanding officer took to
protect the ship while it was tied up and taking on fuel. Navy
spokesmen said initial reports from the ship were inaccurate.
Capt. Kevin Wensing, a Pacific Fleet spokesman, said yesterday
the Kitty Hawk battle group tracked the two planes by radar and
"took appropriate action."
"In each case, the carrier and its escorts were aware of the
Russian aircraft presence and tracked them throughout and
appropriate actions were taken," Capt. Wensing said. "While
these types of overflights were commonly conducted by Soviet
aircraft from the 1960s to the 1980s, the frequency has
diminished during the past 10 years as our relations and level of
cooperation have improved.
"The Navy utilizes a wide array of information and intelligence
sources to provide the necessary data to classify any potential
threats and to take appropriate actions," he said.
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Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF:
*Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
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