[Jeff F]

The captain would only be authorized to respond if fired upon and perhaps not even then. He and his crew have seen many similar if less extreme incidents staged by the Russians. They know this incident is for show and not for war. In any case, the ship and crew would not survive for long if the Russian actually decided to fully engage it in those waters.

The purpose of the US ship is to show the flag, support allies, and to gather information. It is not to get into a hopeless fight that could lead to a much boarder and deadly conflict.

[cassiusking]

I am pretty sure that if the Russian was armed and locked on, the captain would have reacted and the jet would have been toast.