RUSSIAN RUFFLE Putin’s bombers buzz USA carrier, Navy jets respond

In yet another instance of rising military tensions between the United States and Russia, the U.S. Navy resorted to launching four armed fighter jets to escort its own aircraft carrier, USS Ronald Reagan after two Russian military planes flew very close to it.

The two Russian TU-142 Bear aircraft were flying about a mile from the carrier at an altitude of 500 feet on Tuesday, said a Pentagon spokesman, Captain Jeff Davis.

The Russian aircraft, whose numbers were not revealed, were intercepted first by South Korean military aircraft.

The USA had tried to contact the Russian planes but received no radio response, Stars and Stripes adds.

‘It’s standard operating procedure for USA planes to escort any aircraft that are flying anywhere in the vicinity of US Navy ships, ‘ Davis said.

A US Navy official told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the Russian plane came within one nautical mile (1852 meters) of the USA carrier, and that both U.S. and Russian pilots behaved professionally during the incident. “This kind of interaction is not unprecedented”, Cmdr. The effort includes a new Arctic military command and increased icebreaker fleet. The island is a major US military hub for the Obama administration’s pivot to Asia.

On July 4, USA fighter jets intercepted Russian fighters off the coasts of California and Alaska.

The California bomber incursion also took place the same day that President Obama held a telephone conversation with Putin. The Tu-142 long distance naval surveillance aircraft is a derivative of the Tu-95 bomber, and entered service in 1972.

And in June, the Navy released video of a Russian Su-24 jet flying past the right side of the guided missile destroyer USS Ross as it cruised in worldwide waters in the Black Sea off Crimea.