2003 Bawean incident

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2024-07-07 05:30:04

The 2003 Bawean incident was an incident where two Indonesian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon equipped with AIM-9 missiles were sent to intercept five US Navy F/A-18 Hornet fighter jets from the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson where the F-16s and F/A-18s engaged in a dogfight, missile lock and electronic warfare in 2003 near Bawean Island in the Java Sea, north of Java.

The incident began when Indonesian Air Force radars detected the movement of five unidentified aircraft in a combat formation. Because the aircraft later disappeared from radar, the Sector II National Air Defense Command and the National Air Defense Operations Center did not report it to the center.[2]

3 hours later radar detected more activity on the Green 63 civil flight route near Bawean Island or 66 nautical miles (122 km; 76 mi) from Surabaya.[3]

Because the aircraft were not communicating with air traffic control, it was deemed dangerous for civil aviation. The commander of the Second National Air Defense Sector Command scrambled two F-16B Fighting Falcon fighter jets (registration TS-1602 and TS-1603) to identify the aircraft. At 17:04 the two armed F-16s took off from Iswahjudi AFB.[4][5]