Why do countries have a jet or ship escort another nation’s jet or ship whenever they barely enter their territory, and then act like a crisis was barely averted even though they are on friendly terms?
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Entering the waters or airspace of another nation without permission is an act of war. Just being there is an act of war. The escort is the polite way of stating that they are aware they are there and encouraging them to return to areas they are allowed to be. If they refuse to do so then they will be destroyed and having given them time to leave first makes other foreign powers more accepting of the action.
It’s quite simple; All vessels or aircraft entering a nations borders must identify themselves. Planes must submit flight plans that tell the country of origin and destination country when they’ll leave, arrive and what they’re carrying. Similar thing for ships. That way when they show up on radar, it’s not unexpected. These vessels also have transponders that tell the military and tracking stations who they are.
If something shows up on radar and no transponder signal is found, then radio contact will be attempted to find out who/what the vessel is. If they get no response, then interceptors are dispatched to visually identify the unknown radar contact.
This usually isn’t big news or even remotely a crisis when it turns out just to be someone who didn’t submit a flight plan, or just someone with a faulty transponder. It is a big deal when something like a military plane of one nation violates the airspace of another, especially if they’re on unfriendly terms; IE US vs Russia, China vs India. These actions can often times be seen as threats. The USSR would make this almost routine to measure the US’s response and to determine weak spots in their radars.
The escort is the country “politely” saying, “You are not allowed to be here and you need to leave – and we are going to make sure you do.” They don’t want to shoot the plane/ship down outright as that might spark a war, but they do want to make it clear that the presence of the plane/ship is not welcome. By escorting the plane/ship back outside their territory, they can keep tabs on it and make sure it actually _does_ leave without doing whatever it came there to do.
A plane or ship warned to leave, given an escort, and then shot down because it refused to follow the order to leave sovereign space is _much_ more well received by the international community than just shooting it down outright.
If a random person wandered into school property during school hours, you would expect them to be escorted to identify themselves regardless of who they are.
This makes the school show to the students, parents, and the general public that they are strict on security for everyone so they can catch anyone sneaking in. This can prevent a larger crisis.
It also shows that the people working as security monitors are doing the job they are paid for.
Generally it is done to
1. Make sure all is kosher kind of like how even a friendly handshake was originally to check if the other person has a hidden knife.
2. Let the rest of the branches of military know its a sanctioned entry and exit since you cant enter foreign airspace in a military/political capacity otherwise (commerical flights are commercial therefor isn’t necessary)
It would be helpful to know what you are referring to, but I believe they escort these planes and vessels because they are defending their soverign borders and territory.
If you’re talking US-Russia, they are not on friendly terms — one guy wants to be, but the countries aren;t.
What are you talking about? Countries on friendly terms *don’t* do that, unless the aircraft/vessel is unexpected and unidentified. Do you have some example to the contrary? Hostile or adversarial countries definitely do that for obvious reasons. If a plane or ship from a hostile country enters your airspace or waters, they could be spying or preparing to attack, and you don’t want that, so you send a plane/ship of your own to say “get out or we shoot”.
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