280
submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

An Australian pilot was forced to take evasive action after a Chinese military jet detonated flares close to a Navy helicopter that was operating in international waters near South Korea.

The Defence Department has described the actions of the J-10 Chinese Air Force plane as "unsafe and unprofessional" following the incident which took place in the Yellow Sea over the weekend.

On Saturday a MH-60R Seahawk which had launched from HMAS Hobart was intercepted by the People's Liberation Army-Air Force (PLA-AF) as it was taking part in a UN mission to enforce sanctions against North Korea.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 113 points 3 months ago

Correct me if I'm wrong but you don't "detonate" flares, they don't explode, they just burn with a bright flame. Yes, certainly, dropping, popping, ejecting them near other aircraft, especially with an intention to harass is unprofessional and dangerous, but the headline is still sensationalist.

To be clear, I'm not tone policing, the verbiage just gives the wrong impression on how flares work.

[-] ik5pvx@lemmy.world 37 points 3 months ago

You are right. I once heard a pilot say "popping flares", so that's my usual choice.

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 11 points 3 months ago

The difference between "popping" and "dropping" in my reading is that some planes have the flare ejection system aimed upwards, which primarily helps with threats from behind as the flares fly up as they "pop", then drop into the trail of the aircraft, while some systems are aimed downwards and also mostly to the side, so the "drop" flares which are better if the expected threat is going to be below the aircraft.

This is just conjecture from me, it might be BS, but I see most fighter jets have flare systems aimed upwards, while some transport planes and helicopters have it on the sides on the low side. In case of the helicopters, it might also be there to avoid getting in the rotors. I'm no military pilot, though, so take this with a mine worth of salt.

[-] RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world 16 points 3 months ago

They don’t aim upwards really because the missile would chase the flare as it falls and bring the defending plane right back into the field of view of the seeker. The flares are supposed to pull the missile away from the aircraft. Source: my plane has flares.

I will also say that “detonating” is a very silly word for this situation because they burn rather than explode. This shouldn’t understate the danger though of ingestion of a burning flare into an engine (modern helicopters like this have small engines that power the rotor) or impact with the rotor which has the potential to cause an even more violent end. If the helicopter is operating with its side doors open, that flare could even enter the cabin and cause serious injury if not loss of the whole aircraft. All of this to protect sales to an evil dictator (NK)

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 4 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the response!

I guess I've based my assumptions on the only plane I've ever seen popping flares, which was an old Sukhoi. From what I've seen in old school textbooks, a lot of those planes had flare dispensers aimed upwards. Maybe the idea is that ideally they would try to get a side aspect to the missile either way, so it wouldn't matter as much?

Now that you mention it, newer MiGs - I mean as new as a MiG-21 is - drop flares downwards. I'd love to find out more about the engineering of this.

[-] RedditRefugee69@lemmy.world 3 points 3 months ago

Yeah. But sorry I don’t wanna get into classified info on Lemmy lol

[-] maynarkh@feddit.nl 3 points 3 months ago

Yeah, I get it, let's keep that to War Thunder. Thanks for the response in any case.

[-] JustZ@lemmy.world -1 points 3 months ago

Damn I wish my plane had flares, my plane doesn't even exist.

load more comments (29 replies)
this post was submitted on 06 May 2024
280 points (96.4% liked)

World News

38147 readers
2412 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS