Russian jet intercepted United States spy plane over Black Sea

A Russian fighter buzzed a US reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea this week in a close encounter that put the American aircraft at risk, USA military officials said.

United States defence officials said its jet was flying 30 miles from the coast and well within worldwide airspace at the time of the encounter.

However, Baldanza said that “No specific incident or event prompted today’s discussion”.

In the meantime, top defense officials from the USA and Russian Federation discussed issues related to military safety in Syrian air space during a video conference on Thursday. Citing US defense officials the daily reported that “the Su-27 flew alongside the RC-135, an electronic intelligence-gathering aircraft, and then performed what they said was an aggressive banking turn away from the intelligence jet”. “We have addressed our concerns on this matter appropriately”.

“The two sides discussed measures to enhance operational safety for counter-ISIL coalition and Russian military forces operating in Syria, including the means to avoid accidents and unintended confrontation between coalition and Russian forces whenever the two sides operate in close proximity”.

The RC-135U is a four-engine jet used in “locating and identifying foreign military land, naval and airborne radar signals” from potential adversaries in order to develop countermeasures, US media report citing the US Air Force.

Intercepts between Russian, U.S. and other Western European aircraft have increased markedly since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, starting with its annexation of Crimea in February 2014.

“Earlier this week, Japan’s Defense Ministry revealed that Japanese interceptor jets were scrambled to chase two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers that approached the northern end of Japan”, according to the Express.

There are only two RC-135U aircraft in the Air Force inventory.

Hernandez declined to say where exactly the incident occurred, only that it happened over the Black Sea.

In one of those incidents, a Russian Su-27 flew within 100 feet of the nose of the U.S. Air Force RC-135U over the Sea of Okhotsk between Russia and Japan, which an official told CNN was “one of the most unsafe close passes in decades” and said the Russian jet “put the lives of the U.S. crew in jeopardy”.