No one does it this close to a ship. The Russians were testing our close approach allowance orders. Try to get this close to a Russian destroyer and you’d be fired on a couple of miles out - at least. Those planes were inside the kill zone for the ship.
See my post #10.
Have you been to sea on a warship?
Uh, no. It was SOP during the cold war. We never shot down a Ivan doing a buzz job, and they never shot down one of ours. An inch is as good as a mile when it comes to a close pass.
This is nothing but our touchy feelie military leadership (including the CIC) whining cause someone kicked sand in their eyes.
“No one does it this close to a ship.”
Sure they do, and it’s been going on for 50 years...