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After a long hiatus, it’s Bear season again.

The resident USAF pilot in my Prowler squadron intercepted a pair of Bears in a T-33 one time, unarmed of course, could barely keep up to them much less intercept them but he did.

Those things are freakin fast. There was a discussion among stars that I got tangentially drawn into regarding using P-3s to assist in interception of Bears. I politely informed them that we could neither fly as high or nearly as fast as they could...
 
Those things are freakin fast. There was a discussion among stars that I got tangentially drawn into regarding using P-3s to assist in interception of Bears. I politely informed them that we could neither fly as high or nearly as fast as they could...

And even if you could.....it seems to me the possibility of force is an important ingredient to an intercept.
 
And even if you could.....it seems to me the possibility of force is an important ingredient to an intercept.
That's what you'd think, but in our world of perceptions, it's more important to have some blue aircraft in the picture which invariably gets snapped, than to actually have the capability to stop the Bear. If push came to shove, ramming is always an option of last resort. To wit, read some of the AARs for the first (unarmed) fighters to get airborne during 9/11. Those guys were going to go Kamikaze mode if necessary.
 
That's what you'd think, but in our world of perceptions, it's more important to have some blue aircraft in the picture which invariably gets snapped, than to actually have the capability to stop the Bear. If push came to shove, ramming is always an option of last resort. To wit, read some of the AARs for the first (unarmed) fighters to get airborne during 9/11. Those guys were going to go Kamikaze mode if necessary.
Here’s a CSPAN interview with one the pilots if the initial 2 ship launch. It explains the decisions that were made. It’s long, but worth watching.
http://www.c-span.org/Events/AHTV-Remembers-911/10737423828-1/
 
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