Tensions between Moscow and the West have recently escalated after a German military helicopter was fired upon by a Russian ship in the Baltic Sea, German media reported.
German news agency (DPA) announced that a German Bundeswehr (Bundeswehr) helicopter was fired upon with signal flares from a Russian warship in the Baltic Sea. It is not clear when this incident allegedly occurred, but Deutsche Welle state The Russian ship that committed the dangerous act was a “tanker.”
Signal flare launchers are typically firearms in the traditional sense, firing rocket-propelled pyrotechnics that emit large amounts of heat and light to aid search and rescue operations and other communications at sea. Other forms of flares can protect ships, tanks, aircraft, and missiles by using the emission of heat or light to confuse missiles looking for heat or other radio signatures, so they can be used as countermeasures. used.
Although they are not intended as weapons, their directed energy and high heat can pose some danger, especially to aviation.
The incident in the Baltic Sea appears to have come to light after German Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Verbock mentioned it in a roundabout way on the sidelines of a NATO meeting. Concerns about the state of Russia's relations with the West are high, and talk of deteriorating relations is rife in European capitals. At the time of publication, the German Ministry of Defense has made no comment only on the allegations raised by the DPA.
It was a legitimate civilian vessel that fired flares directly at the helicopter. But on the one hand, it has already been recently claimed that it has ostensibly used merchant ships to carry out hybrid warfare-type attacks, and on the other hand, Moscow very long history The act of disguising a warship as a civilian ship.
The use of signal flares is a very clear return to the behavior of the Russian fleet at the height of the Cold War, when non-lethal technological confrontations were common. As recorded by According to former Navy Adm. “Bud” Zumwalt Jr., the U.S. fleet was frequently locked in “a very dangerous but exhilarating game of chicken” with the Russians, who never actually fired their guns. He sought to make life as difficult as possible for American sailors. they.
As reported, when Zumwalt served as a destroyer captain in the Baltic Sea, he was involved in many American combat missions, including “aiming weapons, firing flares, blinding with searchlights, and performing dangerous maneuvers.” I witnessed Soviet tactics to harass groups.
Such cat-and-mouse games are already well known in waters around China, where the People's Liberation Army and the Navy's coast guard constantly harass ships from other countries with dangerous maneuvers that sometimes result in deliberate collisions or spraying them with high-powered fire hoses. I am doing it. It has also been seen over Ukraine, where the Russian Air Force dropped fuel on a U.S. reconnaissance drone mid-flight, ultimately destroying it in a collision with a harassing fighter jet.
However, such tactics can escalate. it was reported earlier this year A Russian warship fired a warning shot at a Norwegian fishing trawler fishing in Norway's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after demanding it leave the area.
