Russian fighter jet flies within 10 feet of Navy aircraft

The United States accused Russian Federation of sending one of its fighter jets dangerously close to an American spy plane over the Black Sea on Wednesday, an intercept American military officials said was “unsafe and unprofessional”, even as Moscow said it acted in accordance with worldwide flight rules.

A Russian Su-27 Flanker jet made an unsafe, close-range intercept of a US P-8A Poseidon anti-submarine and intelligence plane conducting “routine operations” in global airspace, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.

A Russian fighter jet has flown within 10 feet of a U.S. Navy plane over the Black Sea.

They also noted that, “Tensions have been ratcheted up in the Black Sea recently as Russian Federation began five days of military exercises Monday involving 12,500 personnel and its Black Sea fleet based in Crimea”.

In April, the USA complained that Russian jets had confronted one of its reconnaissance planes over the Baltic Sea in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner”.

The incident comes at a time of increased tensions between the United States and Russian Federation, who are on opposing sides of the Syrian civil war.

“The SU-27 intercepted the USA aircraft flying a routine route at high rate of speed from the side then proceeded to perform an aggressive maneuver that posed a threat to the safety of the us aircrew in the RC-135”, Baldanza said.

Officials were talking with the pilot and reviewing the incident to determine whether it would be included in an annual meeting of USA and Russian officials about more serious intercepts, the official added.

A Russian fighter aircraft made an “unsafe close range intercept” with a US Navy jet over the Black Sea today.

According to Western sources, strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the US Air Force, RC-135, took off from an airbase in Greece for a long, mid-air refueling flight near Russian borders in the Black Sea.

This is not the first incident involving the USA and Russian Federation this year.

That followed incidents in April, when Russian aircraft repeatedly buzzed the USS Donald Cook in the Baltic Sea and a Russian aircraft barrel-rolled over a USA reconnaissance plane in global airspace over the same area.

The 28-nation Western defense alliance made a decision to move four battalions totaling 3,000 to 4,000 troops into Northeastern Europe on a rotating basis to display its readiness to defend eastern members against Russian Federation.

Moscow, however, said the intercept was conducted “in strict accordance with worldwide rules” because the Americans were trying to snoop on Russian army exercises.

“On September 7, the US P-8 Poseidon surveillance airplanes tried to approach the Russian border twice… with their transponders off, ” Russian Defense Ministry’s spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov said in a statement.

“The Russia pilots acted in strict accordance with global rules for flights”. “This is not the first attempt by the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation aviation to approach the Russian state border to conduct reconnaissance in the areas where the Caucasus 2016 strategic command-and-staff exercise is held”. The exercise also involves using new equipment, mobilizing region-based units and the “wide usage of aviation and maritime forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Caspian flotilla”.