On September 1, 1983, in the skies over the USSR, the Boeing 747 of the South Korean airline Korean Air Lines was shot down while it was flying on the New York - Seoul route. During the flight, the airliner entered the closed airspace of the USSR and flew over several Soviet military installations. As a result, two Su-15 interceptors were lifted into the air.
Military pilots repeatedly tried to establish contact with the intruder, but they never received a signal back. The Korean Boeing continued its flight towards Sakhalin. Having reported this to the operational headquarters, the command decided to shoot down the plane. After 40 minutes, the Su-15 fighter-interceptor under the control of Gennady Osipovich was ordered to shoot down a passenger liner.
Osipovich fired two missiles at the planes, one of which damaged the Boeing's tail. After 12 minutes, the plane, spiraling down from an altitude of 9000 m, fell into the sea near Moneron Island. The crash killed 246 passengers and 23 crew members, no one survived.
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Last Run - Downed Korean Boeing
According to an investigation by the International Organization civil aviation (ICAO), the most likely reason for the deviation from the flight path was that the Boeing 747 pilots incorrectly adjusted the autopilot and then did not perform the proper checks to update the current position.
The incident caused a serious aggravation of the already difficult relations between the USSR and the USA at that time. The paucity of information and material evidence at the initial stage of the investigation of the disaster gave rise to alternative versions of the incident. However, the release The Russian Federation Flight KAL 007 flight recorders confirmed the original ICAO version.
SUPERSONIC TARAN
On November 28, 1973, an Iranian Air Force RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft invaded Soviet airspace in the Transcaucasus. On alarm from the airfield in Vaziani, the Soviet MiG-21SM under the control of Gennady Eliseev was urgently raised into the air. Ignoring all requests to change course and leave Soviet airspace, Phantom continued its flight. Then the command allowed Eliseev to shoot down an enemy plane.
The MiG-21 fired two missiles at the intruder, but both of them missed the target. Having spent all the ammunition, the pilot decided to ram the Phantom. This was the third supersonic air ramming incident in aviation history. The crew of the Iranian plane (Iranian and American) ejected and was released by the Soviet side two weeks later (the Iranian pilot later died in the Iran-Iraq war). Gennady Eliseev was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for his interception.
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Supersonic fighter - interceptor Su-15
SPY PLANE U-2
On May 1, 1960, a U-2C reconnaissance aircraft piloted by Francis Powers invaded Soviet airspace. This was not the first time that high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft flew over the territory of the Soviet Union.
U-2C was shot down by a Soviet air defense system in the Sverdlovsk area during a reconnaissance flight from Peshawar airbase, Pakistan. According to official version, the plane was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. Powers survived, as the missile only damaged the tail of the plane. As a result, he was sentenced to imprisonment by a Soviet court and in 1962 he was exchanged for a Soviet intelligence agent Rudolf Abel.
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Intelligence battle U-2 stealth aircraft
INCIDENT CL-44
On July 18, 1981, a CL-44 transport aircraft (number LV-JTN, Transporte Aéreo Rioplatense, Argentina), making a secret transport flight on the Tel Aviv-Tehran route, invaded Soviet airspace.
To intercept the intruder from the Vaziani airfield, four Su-15TMs were raised, however, due to the indecision and unskilled actions of the command, the interceptors prematurely used up fuel and were forced to return to base. Then a similar aircraft, piloted by Valentin Kulyapin, armed with R-98M medium-range air-to-air missiles, was aimed at the target with the task of landing the intruder.
Trying to carry out the order, the interceptor approached the target, which made it impossible to use missiles, while the intruder was approaching the border of the USSR airspace. Kulyapin decided to ram the CL-44 and on the second attempt was able to hit the fighter's stabilizer from below with the keel and fuselage of his aircraft.
The transport plane lost control and crashed several kilometers from the border; 4 crew members on board, including a British national, were killed. Kulyapin successfully ejected, for the ram was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. As it turned out, the Argentine plane was carrying weapons for Iran.
THE INCIDENT OF THE SOUTH KOREAN BOING
The incident with the South Korean Boeing took place on April 20, 1978 in the airspace of the USSR over Karelia. Due to a malfunction of the compass, the plane deviated significantly from the route. At 20:54 local time, the Boeing was first spotted by Soviet radars. At 21:19, he invaded Soviet airspace in the Kola Peninsula region.
Since the intruder did not respond to requests from dispatching services, a Su-15 piloted by Captain Alexander Bosov was raised to intercept. Approaching the Boeing, Bossov shook his wings. In response to this, the offender turned around and began to leave towards Finland. Bossov was ordered to destroy the intruder.
At 21:42, the interceptor fired an R-98 rocket, which exploded near the leftmost engine of the Boeing, tearing off a 3-4 m long wing. In addition, the passenger compartment depressurized, the plane began a sharp descent and was lost by Bosov.
The Boeing was forced to land on the ice of the frozen lake Korpijärvi. As a result of a hard landing, 2 passengers were killed: an entrepreneur from South Korea and a tourist from Japan. In total, there were 97 passengers on board (including 26 women and 5 children) and 12 crew members.
LANDING ON THE RED SQUARE
On the afternoon of May 28, 1987, 18-year-old Matthias Rust took off from Hamburg in a four-seat light aircraft Cessna-172B Skyhawk. He made a stopover at Helsinki-Malmi Airport for refueling. Rust told the airport dispatch service that he was flying to Stockholm. At some point, Rust cut off communication with the Finnish dispatch service, and then headed to coastline Baltic Sea and disappeared from Finnish airspace near Sipoo. Rescuers found an oil slick in the sea and regarded it as evidence of a plane crash. Rust crossed the Soviet border near the town of Kohtla-Järve and headed for Moscow.
Moving to Moscow, Rust was guided by railroad Leningrad-Moscow. On the way of his flight, duty units from the airfields of Hotilovo and Bezhetsk rose into the air, but the order to shoot down the Cessna was never received.
The automated air defense system of the Moscow Military District was turned off for preventive maintenance, so the tracking of the intruder aircraft had to be done manually and coordinated by telephone. Rust landed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge, rode up to St. Basil's Cathedral, at 19:10 got off the plane and began to sign autographs. Soon he was arrested.
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Matthias Rust on Red Square 1987
To say that the young German's demarche turned into a grand scandal for the Armed Forces of the USSR is to say nothing. After a special meeting of the Politburo of the CPSU Central Committee, Minister of Defense Marshal of the Soviet Union Sergei Sokolov and Commander-in-Chief of the Air Defense Forces Marshal of Aviation Alexander Koldunov lost their posts. Dmitry Yazov was appointed to replace Sokolov.
The cited figure is from several tens to three hundred servicemen, from lieutenants to generals, who were held accountable for the flight and landing of M. Rust in Sheremetevo-3, as Red Square was jokingly called after this incident. Many researchers of this story are inclined to believe that such repressive measures were unjustified: the Soviet air defense system was configured, first of all, to counter enemy combat aircraft and cruise missiles, and not to hooligans on sports aircraft.
Another stable version of what happened: it was a brilliantly planned and carried out action to discredit the USSR and the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union. The cold war between the West and the USSR continued, and the successful flight of Matthias Rust proved to be a wonderful occasion to once again hurt the "evil empire".
By the way, shortly after Rust's flight, a similar story with a light aircraft occurred in France - there an amateur pilot also made an unauthorized flight over the capital of the country, making the air defense command worried. And in 1994, the athletic Cessna sat at the White House in Washington. The landing then was unsuccessful - the pilot was killed.
In neither case did the "cleansing" of the Armed Forces in France and the United States carry out. The radar service was strengthened and the technical aspect of the detection of such objects, tracking and information exchange was improved.
Violated two US Navy F-51 Mustangs. There was a combat clash with two Soviet La-11 fighters. During the air combat, one F-51 was shot down, one Soviet plane was damaged.
On May 1, 1960, the American Lockheed U-2 reconnaissance aircraft, piloted by pilot Francis Powers, violated the airspace of the USSR and (now Yekaterinburg). The reconnaissance aircraft was shot down by an S-75 anti-aircraft missile system. Pilot Francis Powers survived and was sentenced to ten years in prison. In February 1962, in Berlin, Powers was exchanged for a Soviet intelligence agent, Rudolf Abel.
On July 1, 1960, the air border between Norway and the USSR was brutally violated by an ERB-47H Stratojet from the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing of the US Air Force. The plane that took off from a British airfield was destroyed by a MiG-19 fighter. Of the six crew members, two survived; both pilots were captured and released in January 1961. In addition, the Soviet side returned the found remains of one of the four dead ERB-47H crew members to the United States a month after the incident.
On July 1, 1968, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8 aircraft of the American airline Seaboard World Airlines crossed the USSR border in the Kuril Islands. More than 200 American soldiers were on board. Air defense fighters were sent to intercept. After investigating and establishing the circumstances, the aircraft itself, the soldiers and the crew were handed over to the American government.
On November 28, 1973, an Iranian Air Force RF-4C Phantom II reconnaissance aircraft from Turkey via Armenia and Georgia. In the region of Georgia, our MiG-21SM fighter flew to intercept. An Iranian plane was shot down by a ram. The Soviet pilot was killed. The F-4 crew was ejected by the Soviet side and released shortly thereafter.
On September 1, 1983, a Boeing 747 of the South Korean company Korean Air was shot down by a Soviet fighter-interceptor, en route New York - Seoul. There were 269 people on board, including 246 passengers. In the crash, all passengers and crew members were killed. The destruction of Boeing was the cause of a global scandal. The USA accused the USSR of deliberately destroying the airliner.
On March 13, 1986, the missile cruiser Yorktown and the US Navy destroyer Caron plunged ten kilometers into the territorial waters of the USSR. The ships went with working electronic stations and, obviously, were conducting complex reconnaissance.
On May 28, 1987, a citizen of the Federal Republic of Germany Mathias Rust violated the state border of the USSR on a Cessna sports plane and, having overcome 1220 kilometers in 5 hours and 50 minutes,. The plane landed on the Bolshoy Moskvoretsky Bridge and coasted to St. Basil's Cathedral. The pilot got off the plane and immediately began to sign autographs. Soon he was arrested. Rust was sentenced to four years in prison, on August 3, 1988, he was pardoned by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and expelled from the territory of the USSR.
The sovereignty of the state extends to the airspace located over their land and water territory. This principle is currently considered part of general international law. In the early years of aviation development (with the advent of balloons, airships, and the first heavier-than-air aircraft), there were three main competing theories about the legal status of airspace in international law:
- free air theory: it was argued that since air cannot be appropriated and completely occupied, it must be as free as the sea (Faukil);
- the theory of zones: by analogy with the territorial sea and the open sea, there should be a zone of territorial airspace at the bottom, and above it, to an unlimited height, an open airspace zone (Merinhak);
- theory of complete and exclusive sovereignty of the state.
The First World War showed the possibility of using military aviation as a new formidable weapon that threatens security neighboring countries... The first international convention on the regulation of air traffic of October 13, 1919 resolved the contradiction, stating in Art. 1: "The High Contracting Parties recognize that each Power has full and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace over its territory."
Article 1 of the current Convention on International Civil Aviation of December 7, 1944 (Chicago Convention), which in 2013 had 191 States parties, states: “The Contracting States recognize that each State has full and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace over its territory ". This formulation suggests that principle of state sovereignty over airspace was not established by the Chicago Convention and applies not only to the parties to this process, but is recognized as a rule of general international law and, therefore, should also apply to states that are not parties to the Convention.
For the purposes of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, the territory of a state means land territories and the territorial waters adjacent to them. Similar sea vessels, which is a norm of international maritime law, do not have the right of peaceful overflight of aircraft over territorial waters. They do not even have the right to fly over the territory of another state, except with permission granted by a special agreement or otherwise; similar restrictions apply to unmanned aerial vehicles, including balloons.
The term "airspace" does not have a sufficiently precise definition in international law and there is no legally established boundary between air and outer space. The UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space is studying the issue of delimitation and definition of outer space: such a definition is likely to also allow for a clear legal definition of airspace.
In accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation, States have agreed that all aircraft of other Contracting States not participating in scheduled international air services have the right to fly into its territory or transit non-stop flights through its territory and land for non-commercial purposes without the need to obtain prior permission, but taking into account the right of the state over whose territory the flight is being carried out, to demand to land; this right may be further limited by the requirement to follow the prescribed routes and land at the indicated airports.
No scheduled international air service by aircraft for the purpose of public transport passengers, cargo or mail may not be carried over the territory or into the territory of a Contracting State, except with a special permit or with another authorization of that State and in accordance with the conditions of such permission or authorization.
Such authorization or authorization is in practice granted in bilateral air services agreements whereby contracting states mutually grant aircraft overflight rights, as well as other commercial rights, to designated airlines and designated points of origin and destination; such agreements often include capacity and frequency, aviation security requirements, taxation issues, dispute resolution clauses, etc.
All intended targets multilateral or even global agreement on rules air transportation and did not reach air navigation. The International Civil Aviation Conference, held in Chicago from November 1 to December 7, 1944, did not introduce any positive provisions on scheduled international air services to the Convention on International Civil Aviation; however, the Conference adopted and opened for signature two separate conventions dealing with this matter: the Agreement on Transit on International Air Lines and the Agreement on International Air Transport, signed on December 7, 1944.
According to the Agreement on Transit on International Air Lines, each contracting state grants to other contracting states two "freedoms of the air" when performing regular international air services:
- the priority right to fly over its territory without landing;
- pre-emptive right to land for non-commercial purposes (such as refueling or maintenance).
The Agreement on International Air Transport, known as the Five Freedoms Agreement, has added three more to the basic non-commercial freedoms:
- the priority right to unload passengers, mail and cargo taken on board in the territory of the State, the nationality of which the aircraft has;
- the priority right to take on board passengers, mail and cargo with a destination in the territory of the State, the nationality of which the aircraft has;
- the preemptive right to take on board passengers, mail and cargo destined for the territory of any other Contracting State; and the preemptive right to unload passengers, mail and cargo arriving from any such territory.
Currently, the Agreement is valid only in 11 states. However, the "freedoms of the air" formulated in it have found their embodiment in many bilateral agreements on air services.
Aircraft that have entered or violated sovereign airspace are often intercepted and subject to special coercive measures. Some of these cases have been referred to the International Court of Justice, but objections to its jurisdiction have always prevented the Court from deciding on the merits (for example: Air Incident Case of October 7, 1952 (USA v. USSR), Air Incident Case of March 10, 1953 (USA v. Czechoslovakia); Air Incident Case of 27 July 1955 (Israel v. Bulgaria, USA v. Bulgaria, UK v. Bulgaria)).
The most notorious incidents involving the interception of civil aircraft include the following: the destruction of an Israeli airliner in Bulgaria on July 27, 1955 (58 deaths); On February 21, 1973, the Israeli Air Force shot down a Libyan civilian liner over Sinai (108 dead); On September 1, 1983, Korean Airlines flight KA007 was shot down in the skies over Sakhalin (269 casualties). The latest incident prompted some response, and on 10 May 1984, the 25th (Extraordinary) Session of the ICAO Assembly unanimously approved an amendment in the form of a new Article 3 bis of the Convention on International Civil Aviation. Article 3bis states:
Contracting States recognize that each State must refrain from resorting to the use of weapons against civil aircraft in flight and that, if intercepted, the lives of persons on board and the safety of the aircraft should not be jeopardized.
The wording of this provision indicates that the amendment does not introduce a new legal norm, but recognizes and confirms a previously existing norm; again, the rule applies not only to the contracting states, but to “every state”.
The beginning of which was laid by the collapse of the USSR into independent states. With his disappearance ended the longest war of the twentieth century, which was fought between the West and the East and was called the Cold War. Covert hostilities have been fought for 46 years, not only on land, but also at sea and in the air. The beginning of the Cold War - 1945. The goal is to fight for world domination of the capitalist and communist superpowers.
Neither the United States nor the USSR could openly oppose each other, so the whole confrontation resulted in the Cold War.
Throughout these years, the Americans carried out large-scale intelligence activities against the Soviet Union, violating air, sea and land borders. Not without provocations. It is clear that the USSR could in no way allow such actions to be carried out with impunity, therefore, such provocations often ended in local battles. Mostly they were conducted in the air.
Since 1945, American aircraft have carried out reconnaissance of the Soviet Far Eastern territories, in particular, Kamchatka, the Bering Strait, Chukotka and the Kuril Islands. And there were reasons for that. War between America and Japan on Pacific entered its final stage. The actions of the Americans in the air intensified sharply.
Despite the fact that during the Second World War, America and the USSR were allies, this did not prevent the Americans from feeling very at ease in the airspace, quite often flying over Soviet military bases and ships. It should be remembered that, most likely, the American pilots who make such flights did not think about the problems of big politics, assuming that the principles of military brotherhood are above all. However, the leaderships of both countries needed reasons to unleash conflicts and, as you understand, they did not have to look for them for a long time.
At the end of May 1945, anti-aircraft artillery of the Pacific Fleet shot down two American B-24 military aircraft. The incident took place in the Kamchatka region. Two months later, a similar situation occurred with another American P-38 aircraft, and in the same area. But since the fire was not directed to kill, the planes did not receive any damage. But the Americans answered much harder. In August 1945, American air force planes fired at two Soviet border boats near Kamen Gavryushkin Island, injuring 14 and killing 8 of the crew. It can be assumed that American pilots mistook Soviet ships for Japanese, but the first victims of the Cold War have already appeared.
After the end of the war in September 1945, air border violations continued. Previously, the Americans could explain such actions by conducting operations against Japan or by mistakes.
Thus, for the period from May to September 1945, 27 cases of violations were recorded, in which 86 B-24 and B-25 aircraft participated. From the moment of Japan's surrender until 1950, there were already 46 such provocations with the participation of 63 aircraft. Moreover, only for the period from June 27 to July 16, 1950, 15 air violations were recorded.
The first air collision took place in the Far East in the same 1945, when emergency landing made by one of the American bombers. It happened over Korean territory, near the city of Hamhung, where at that time there was a large air base of the Soviet air force. The Americans, violating the agreement on the air corridor, flew over it, heading to Manchuria for the prisoners. The leadership of the airbase resigned to this situation, but the commission that arrived in the city demanded that measures be taken to stop such flights. In November, one of the American planes, which was making a regular flight over the Soviet base, intercepted 4 Airacobra P-39 fighters and forced it to land. When the American pilots refused to comply with the demands of the Soviet fighters, one of them fired at the American plane, which caused the engine to burn. The Americans were forced to land. None of the American crew were injured. It is noteworthy that no fire was opened on Soviet aircraft. Later, the B-29 was sent to Moscow for testing.
In the postwar years, there was a violation of the borders of the Soviet Union in the northwest, from Norway and Finland. It was a little quieter in the southern cordons of the country. But even here there were violations of the air border, mainly over the territory of Azerbaijan. In 1947, the crew of one of the provocateurs was captured. So, from the side of Iran, a single-engine aircraft of the air force of this state appeared. He landed near the city of Nakhichevan. The border patrol detained his crew. The pilots explained that they were flying to Tabriz from Tehran, but lost their bearings and therefore ended up on Soviet territory. Perhaps this was true, but the plane belonged to Iranian intelligence, and was also armed. In the same 1947, three more cases of violations by Iranian and American aircraft were recorded in the same area.
Later, air provocations were carried out more often, and their consequences were more tragic.
There is evidence that the official first casualties of the Cold War appeared in 1950, when an American PB4Y aircraft violated Soviet airspace near the Libau base in the Baltic. La-11 fighters, raised on alert, intercepted him. But since the American pilots refused to carry out the commands of the Soviet pilots, they had no choice but to open fire. The Americans responded with fire. As a result, PB4Y was shot down and fell into the sea. All 10 members of its crew were killed. It is worth noting that such American military vehicles have appeared several times earlier, so the Soviet side set up an ambush. The Soviet command insisted that the B-29 was shot down, while the Americans still admitted the loss of PB4Y.
There is information that the Americans suffered losses on the Soviet borders before. For example, in 1949, an American B-25 aircraft was shot down over the Black Sea, which landed three paratroopers on Soviet territory, while he himself tried to hide in neutral waters. He was intercepted by two Soviet fighters and shot down. The American crew was picked up by a Soviet border boat.
Most evidence air battles since the Cold War has survived over the 50s. It is clear that there are no exact statistics and cannot be, but nevertheless, some data even sometimes appeared in print. So, according to some sources, in 10 years, starting from 1950, American planes tried 81 times to violate Soviet airspace, of which 20 combat vehicles did not return. According to American sources, the United States began reconnaissance over Soviet territories back in 1949, using specially converted bombers for this. Until 1960, 17 such aircraft did not return.
Other sources speak of a different figure. So, in the period from 1953 to 1956 alone, the Americans violated Soviet air borders 113 times.
Couldn't escape and tragic mistakes for the Soviet side. In the summer of 1954, when another American reconnaissance officer appeared on radar and then went into neutral waters, his own Tu-14 plane was shot down, which, as part of a group, was returning from training bombing. The entire crew of the vehicle was killed. However, the pilot who shot down his plane was not prosecuted, since the Tu-14 was produced in a small series and therefore was little known for the main aviation units.
Like America, NATO also had a large number of reconnaissance aircraft, most of which were in close proximity to Soviet borders. Moreover, the CIA had its own aerial reconnaissance, the military department had its own. Each of them had its own tasks, tactical and strategic.
It should also be noted that neutral states were also involved in aviation reconnaissance. In the Soviet press, two cases of Swedish military aircraft that were shot down by Soviet fighters in 1952 received wide publicity. DC-3 aircraft were part of the Swedish radio intelligence unit and were equipped with the most modern equipment for listening to radio communications over Soviet territory. Moreover, Swedish aircraft, in addition to active aerial and electronic reconnaissance of the Baltic coast, provided assistance to anti-government troops in the Baltic.
In addition, reconnaissance aircraft also appeared at the Soviet borders from countries such as Great Britain, Iran, Germany, Turkey. And although they appeared extremely rarely, the potential of the air forces of these states increased, which did not allow the Soviet troops to relax.
It should also be noted that American aircraft have learned to harm the Soviet Armed Forces without even crossing the borders of the Union. So, for example, when one of the Soviet batteries in the Baku region was about to fire with 130-mm anti-aircraft guns, an American aircraft equipped with powerful radio electronics took off from an Iranian base and simply flew along the Soviet border, creating interference. In response to such "rudeness", Soviet troops began to create radio interference for one of the American bases, which was located in Iran, which made it much more difficult for aircraft to take off and land. A week later, the "fight against interference" was stopped by mutual agreement.
But if until the mid-50s the Soviet troops somehow managed to maintain the inviolability of the state borders, then in 1954 the last frontier collapsed. The reason for this was the emergence of automatic drifting balloons (ADA) in the arsenal of the Western special services, which were able to rise to great heights, thus becoming inaccessible to fighters. They were equipped with the latest reconnaissance equipment and launched from military bases in Norway, Germany, Italy, France, Turkey. ADA could reach heights up to 30 kilometers, so even the Soviet MiG-15bis, Yak-25 and MiG-17P, which operated at an altitude of up to 15 kilometers, were unable to reach them. Therefore, balloons successfully conducted reconnaissance over practically the entire Soviet territory. The USSR air defense forces had no choice but to record their appearance.
True, some ADA were shot down. The first of them was destroyed in 1954 near Chernivtsi at an altitude of 10 kilometers with the help of the MiG-17P. A few days later, the Soviet pilots tried again to shoot down the balloon, but this time they failed.
The period of greatest activity of ADA began in 1956, when about 3 thousand balloons violated the Soviet borders in just two months. And over 20 years, 4112 balls were recorded, of which 793 were shot down.
In addition, the British Canberra reconnaissance aircraft, the American RB-57 and U-2 delivered many problems to the Soviet air defense system. Later, the RB-57F also appeared. All of them operated at heights inaccessible to interception.
In just 5 days in July 1956, they made 5 breakthroughs into Soviet territory up to 350 kilometers deep. In the same year, "Lockheed" U-2 appeared, which appeared over Moscow and Kiev, Crimea and Minsk, The Far East and the Baltics, Siberia and Central Asia. All attempts to "get" the high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft were unsuccessful. And only in November 1959, the "antidote" was found. It was at this time that the S-75 Desna anti-aircraft missile system was adopted by the Soviet air defense system. It demonstrated its effectiveness on November 16, when an American balloon was shot down at an altitude of 28 kilometers.
The S-75 began to be used not only to protect borders, but also especially important facilities on the very territory of the state. A little later, the Su-9, fighter-interceptors with a ceiling height of 20 kilometers, began to enter service. But their number was still insufficient to provide reliable protection. So, in 1960, the Lockheed aircraft, having taken off from Pakistan, violated the Soviet border in the Turkmenian region and headed for Baikonur. Attempts were made to intercept it with two MiG-19s, but one of the planes was destroyed, so the interception did not take place. When the Lockheed returned over the territory of Turkmenistan, two MiG-17s tried to intercept it, pursuing a scout even over Iranian territory, but to no avail.
In May 1960, they still managed to win a victory over U-2, but there were some casualties from the Soviet side. Near Sverdlovsk, two MiG-19 and Su-9 were alerted, but none of these fighters managed to intercept the enemy, but the missilemen coped with this problem. True, they overdid it: in a hurry they began to fire at their own people, as a result of which one MiG-19 was destroyed, and the pilot died.
A major international scandal erupted, after which US President D. Eisenhower banned Lockheed's flights. The silence lasted for over 2 years. At the end of August 1962, they reappeared over Soviet territory in the region of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk and Chukotka.
In addition to such high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, low-rise vehicles appeared over Soviet territory: RB-47 Stratojet and RB-45C Tornado. So, RB-47 has repeatedly appeared over the Japanese and Caspian Seas, in the Vladivostok area. In July 1960, one of these aircraft crossed the border in the Arkhangelsk region. The MiG-19 was used to intercept it. As a result, the American plane was shot down, only two of the 6 crew members survived.
When anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as new generation fighter-interceptors, appeared in the arsenal of the Soviet troops, high-altitude border breakouts ended. But this does not mean at all that air border violations have stopped. The NATO countries were armed with long-range radar aircraft, which could conduct reconnaissance even outside the borders of the desired state. It was enough to be near the Soviet borders to conduct successful reconnaissance hundreds of kilometers inland.
Very little information about the confrontation between America and the USSR in the 60s has been preserved, since by order of L. Brezhnev, strict censorship was introduced in the press. Any incidents that happened on the Soviet border were classified. Therefore, the only source is the Western media. So, for 3 years, from 1967 to 1970, the American side violated the air borders of the Soviet Union more than 10 times. Among them is the case of DC-8, which in 1968 crossed the border near the Kuril Islands, the name on board 100 American soldiers. Air defense fighters were sent to intercept. After investigating and establishing the circumstances, the aircraft itself, the soldiers and the crew were handed over to the American government.
At the end of May 1978, a Soviet Tu-16R aircraft of the Northern Fleet Air Force disappeared in the waters of the Norwegian Sea. Nothing is known about what happened to the scout. The last information that was received from the board was that the pilots had found the American Essex. There are guesses that the Tu-16-R was shot down by the Americans, although the latter deny their involvement in the disappearance of the Soviet plane.
Another Soviet Tu-95RTs aircraft of the Northern Fleet Air Force disappeared in the Norwegian Sea in August 1976.
When making an aerial reconnaissance flight to the Atlantic, Tu-95RTs tried to intercept the American F-4 Phantom, as a result of which one of them crashed wing into the tail of a Soviet reconnaissance aircraft. American pilots ejected, and Soviet pilots barely made it to base.
Another incident is connected with the violation of Soviet borders, which ended in the death of hundreds of people. In September 1983, the Soviet airspace was violated by the South Korean Boeing 747 airliner, which was very similar to the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft. When the target mark appeared on the airborne radar, the Su-15 pilot who was sent to intercept identified it as RC-135. There is no need to remind what happened next ...
After the new MiG-31 interceptor fighters, which are considered the best in the world, appeared in service in the Soviet Union, the Americans no longer wanted to conduct aerial reconnaissance over Soviet territory. The Americans recognized the Soviet dominance in the air, focusing on the creation of ultra-precise.
