Russia’s Su-27 fighter jet has intercepted a Swedish Gulfstream reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry announced on January 24.
“An aerial target approaching Russia’s state border was spotted by Russian airspace controls. A Su-27 fighter jet from the Air Force was employed to intercept the target,” the defense ministry told media.
According to the defense ministry, the fighter jet “approached the object at a safe distance, identified it as a Gulfstream reconnaissance plane from the Swedish Air Force that was conducting a flight with its transponder switched off.” After that, the Swedish spy plane flew away from the Russian border and the Su-27 jet returned to its base.
The Russian military also released a video showing the interception on its YouTube channel. [a downloaded version is above] However, the released video appears to be made from different clips, which were added to the moment of the interception. The video includes:
- A pilot and a Su-27 fighter jet with missiles;
- A Su-27 fighter jet without missiles is taking off from an airstrip;
- The moment of the interception;
- A cabin of another type of warplane [a two-seat jet] when the jet is landing.
Click to see the full-size image
Click to see the full-size image
Click to see the full-size image
Click to see the full-size image
The video was intended to show the interception of the Swedish spy plane by a Russian Su-27 jet. However, the aforementioned akward mistakes in the final footage undermine the main purpose of the material because undermining the credibility of the data provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.
This is not the first time when technical mistakes made in coverage of Russian military, diplomatic and diplomatic activities put the country in a complicated media situation. For example:
- In December 2018, the military released a web page, which illustrates the defense ministry’s work in 2018. In the original version of the web page, Russia’s Peresvet laser combat system was illustrated with a photo of the AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System (also known as XN-1 LaWS) aboard the US Navy’s USS Ponce amphibious transport dock.
- In November, 2017 an official Facebook page of the Russian Defense Ministry released fake photos [old photos from Iraq and a screenshot from a video game] to illustrate a statement on interaction between the US-led international coalition and ISIS militants. Later, the defense ministry said that a civil employee attached the wrong photos to the post and the incident was under investigation.
- In the third part of Oliver Stone’s Showtime special “The Putin Interviews” broadcasted from June 12 to June 15, 2017 Putin took out a cellphone to show Stone a clip of how Russian aircraft were striking militants in Syria. The video that appeared was US gun camera footage originally filmed in Afghanistan in 2013.
