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- Newsgroups: sci.military
- Path: sparky!uunet!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!rpi!newsserver.pixel.kodak.com!psinntp!psinntp!ncrlnk!ciss!law7!military
- From: Jeffrey Casterline <jlc@u.washington.edu>
- Subject: The Cessna In Red Square
- Message-ID: <BxvFwG.9Gr@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM>
- Sender: military@law7.DaytonOH.NCR.COM (Sci.Military Login)
- Organization: NCR Corporation -- Law Department
- Date: Tue, 17 Nov 1992 17:43:28 GMT
- Approved: military@law7.daytonoh.ncr.com
- Lines: 33
-
-
- From Jeffrey Casterline <jlc@u.washington.edu>
-
-
- Several days ago a poster to the net, when talking about the
- utility of a 747 vs a B52 vs a B1, noted that perhaps the
- FSU air defenses weren't up to what we thought they were, and
- cited the Cessna landing in Red Square as an example of that
- fact.
-
- I thought that this wasn't a failure of air defenses, per se,
- but rather more a problem with the senior decision-makers. They had
- a plan for dealing with an obvious threat (like a NATO aircraft
- penetrating their air space), but did not know what to do with a situation
- like this. That is, they followed the plane throughout its flight, but
- couldn't decide what to do about it.
-
- I recognize that an aircraft like a Cessna could have carried
- some kind of bomb, potentially destroying the Kremlin, etc.,
- and for that reason perhaps the Soviets should have done something
- about it.
-
- Anybody out there remember more than this or have additional
- information. Like the shooting down of the KAL 747, I thought
- this issue was more one of command and control, and not of their
- ability to track and identify. In this instance I am more interested
- in the quality of the air defense technology than their c3I systems,
- although I know they must work together.
-
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