Turkish violations in the Aegean: Rules of engagement and radar lock-out of Greek and Turkish fighters
On the one hand, we have the unacceptable recent statements by Turkish officials that question Greek sovereignty over the Aegean islands. Of course, they are not just unacceptable to us. They have been rejected by the EU, the US State Department and the UK Foreign Office among others.
On the other hand, issues related to the Turkish violations in the Aegean are presented through the Turkish press, that Greece is the one violating Turkish airspace trying to distort the reality.
In a Turkish media outlet, the Turkish columnist Beyazit Karatas Pterarchos e.a. since he explains what the rules of engagement are and what radar blocking between fighter aircrafts conveys the message that the Turkish fighter jets are the ones blocking the Greek ones, considering that they are violating Turkish airspace.
“In order to justify the so-called claims of Greece, the need arose to provide information without going too much into the technical aspects of the matter, as the radar lock of Greek warplanes has come to the fore again during the increasing hostile behavior against Turkish warplanes in in recent months,” he says.
However, it does not explain why Turkey sends daily drones as well as naval cooperation aircraft over the Aegean and the Greek islands.
It is a fact that, in recent years, the Turks have carried out violations in the Aegean not only with fighters but also with drones (from the Dalaman base, opposite Rhodes), which the Greek side intercepts in a disproportionately costly way, taking off F-16 .
Beyond that, however, Turkey’s drones aren’t just committing violations. Turkish UCAV (unmanned aerial combat aircraft) flights along the Asia Minor coast have increased in recent years. Undoubtedly, among other things, they are trying to locate the positions of the Greek anti-aircraft systems and especially the SA-8b Gecko which are stationed on the islands of the Eastern Aegean.
Rules of engagement is the concept that defines the laws, or rules, that military elements must follow when using force. The concept was first included in the Document of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms, published by the United States Department of Defense in 1958.
The concept of rules of engagement arose with the prohibition of the use of force in international law and the possibility of international tensions and conflicts turning into war and is a mechanism that makes it possible to give political instructions and impose restrictions on elements participating in a military operation .
Rules of engagement appear in various forms in national military doctrines, including supplemental auxiliary orders, deployment orders, operational plans, and currently applicable directives. While rules of engagement broadly express the methods used by parties to conduct their relations in diplomacy, to give an example in the military sense, they define the terms of the military response to be made against a threat that would occur on the country’s territory or violate another country’s airspace.
And at this point distortion is attempted as it states: “Due to its rights deriving from international agreements, Turkey uses the international airspace of the Aegean for training and exercises. The problem is that Greece, one of the two NATO member countries, interprets these agreements in its own way, abuses its responsibilities, applies different airspace limits and accepts the Aegean as a Greek lake.
The question is, how do Turkish and Greek warplanes apply the rules of engagement that come “face to face” in the Aegean. It is known that Turkish pilots “eat wood” daily over the Aegean as the ability of Greek pilots is now accepted throughout the NATO alliance.
The rules of engagement are a matter that must be applied and handled very carefully, politically and militarily, depending on the situation and circumstances, and it requires common sense, which we do not see from the Turkish fighters.
When it comes to radar systems used in aircraft, these radars are used for two purposes, namely air-to-air and air-to-ground for flight support. These radars are also equipped with fire and weapons control radars to work in coordination with the weapons systems used on military aircraft.
The air-to-air characteristics of radars, which support the safe flight of warplanes, are used to detect targets and effectively launch missiles or the weapons systems used. The method used to separate the selected and tracked target or targets from other tracked targets when performing these tasks is called “radar lock shedding”.
Finally, each radar system has its own symbols and operating procedures. The radars of F-16 aircraft are located in the nose. In the cockpit of the F-16 aircraft, there are displays and symbols and the Head Up Display (HUD), which facilitates flight, and the Radar Warning Receiver (RWR), which warns the pilot visually and audibly.
