Back in the late 80’s a company I worked for was involved in ASW (anti-submarine warfare) using sonar buoys (this particular adventure occurred before I joined). Among the activities occurring at that time was a Soviet Navy fleet exercise in the north Atlantic in a Neptune. It was customary to check out the fleet by flying past it and taking pictures during the day, and see how their radar systems responded both day and night. One late evening they were making a few additional passes by the main battle fleet. My aquaintance was on a mission doing a field evaluation of some equipment. He started watching a screen, which monitored radar from various ships. He said that only two dots were on screen at the time. About two minutes later he said that the navigator started yelling, "Bank right! Bank Right! BANK RIGHT!” About that time, the screen suddenly lit up like a Xmas tree. They had flown directly over a Soviet cruiser at 250 feet. The entire fleet had lit up their radars and tracked the Neptune as it headed away from the ship. The guy told me that he could smell the perspiration from everyone figuring that they were going to be shot down. Nothing happened, of course, but what really got his hair on end was going right back and flying another couple of passes right by the Commie fleet all over again.
Now as stories come out how each side poked and prodded one another, it’s pretty clear that both sides were playing a game of chicken. The game still continues between the PRC and US (as one witness in the past couple of years when a PRC fighter jet collided with our ELINT (re: spy) plane.)
You will note that it’s a matter of “professional” courtesy that each side is always trying to do something to intimidate one another. But they don’t try to push too hard at once especially if it becomes public; an int’l incident is usually considered a failure on both sides because it causes them to become temporarily more conservative.
Not so with a civilian planes.
In most cases, a civilian approaching a military object (be it a base, facility, carrier) is going to find the equivalent of a barking dog behind a “Beware of Dog” sign. One sailplane advocate told me that in 1975 he decided to “accidentally” trespass some airspace over the Navy’s China Lake in California. About two minutes later an F-14 buzzed over him at 300 knots; the wash from the F-14’s wing-tips convinced him that it was best to get the hell out of there. Given the post 9/11 feelings, flying a civilian aircraft towards carrier and playing stupid is going to get you a lot of attention very, very fast. Same with a boat. What happens after that is most likely going to bring much grief in the form of 1) Shuffling off one’s mortal coil, or 2) Plenty of legal trouble in the form of:
“Congratulations! We’ve compiled enough evidence (how we obtained this information is classified) to label you as an Unlawful Combatant. You’re off to an all expense paid trip to Guantomano [sic] Bay!”
Perhaps an exaggeration, but given the mood the country is in (especially with the daily causalities in Iraq), most people IMHO would be incline to believe the guy/gal was asking for it, even if they were just “accidentally” straying towards a carrier.