Posted on 04/11/2015 5:04:01 AM PDT by Paid_Russian_Troll
A Russia Su-27 jet fighter flew dangerously close and nearly collided with a U.S. reconnaissance aircraft this week in the latest aerial provocation by Moscow, defense officials revealed to the Washington Free Beacon.
The Su-27 conducted the close-in intercept of an RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday, said officials. The incident prompted a diplomatic protest.
“On the morning of April 7th, a U.S. RC-135U flying a routine route in international airspace was intercepted by a Russian Su-27 Flanker in an unsafe and unprofessional manner,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Eileen M. Lainez.
“The United States is raising this incident with Russia in the appropriate diplomatic and official channels,” she said in a statement.
A defense official said the Russian fighter jet flew within 20 feet of the unarmed reconnaissance jet in what the official called a “reckless” encounter that endangered the lives of the RC-135 crew.
No details were available regarding the mission of the RC-135, which was in a position to monitor Russian military activities in western Russia and Kaliningrad.
The RC-135 is a militarized and upgraded Boeing 707 jetliner that can be configured for several types of intelligence gathering, including photo, nuclear monitoring, and electronic spying.
The RC-135U variant involved in Tuesday’s near collision is code-named Combat Sent and conducts technical intelligence gathering on enemy electronic signals and radar emitters.
The monitoring comes amid new worries that Russia is deploying new short-range Iskander nuclear capable missiles in Kaliningrad and Russian-occupied Crimea in the Ukraine.
A second defense official said there have been no recent Russian aerial provocations near U.S. coasts. But Moscow is expected to ramp up its training operations flights around this time of year.
“That means we’re probably due for [aerial encounters] soon,” the official said.
(Excerpt) Read more at freebeacon.com ...
Given his posts over the past year or so, tcrlaf was probably escorting you while seated in a Russian jet.
They did indeed find it...it was a long haul, before the days of technology and techniques they used to find the Titanic.
Prolly tried to pull a “Tom Cruise” maneuver, to keep up foreign relations...
I guess it didn’t work out too well...
Heck, you and I might have been on there at the same time. I did two weeks on there as part of a detachment of my squadron down near Rosie Roads sometime in 1976 or 1977.
I must say I didn’t enjoy it...it was hot, and the ship wasn’t in great shape.
Prolly tried to pull a “Tom Cruise” maneuver, to keep up foreign relations...
Doubtful. This seems an intentional incident. IT’s part of the OMG this is WW3 coming psywar campaign coming from the Kremlin right now.
Business as usual for them. Strange times.
Well, I still thought they were trying to do the middle finger thing to someone on that 135...
You must be talking about some of the ones that “stayed home” after the wall came down. I’ve met and worked with many from the former Soviet Union over the past 20 years, and none of them were as you describe; not even the young man who was in the Kmosomol before coming here with his parents after “the empire” fell apart.
My son plays “World of Tanks,” sometimes, on the Russian server, and the Americans rail continually — and in the most florid verbiage imaginable — against the Russian players. Not so the Russians. Not at all. In fact, dropping chat fragments from the Russians into Google Translate reveals that — for their part — the Russians are talking among themselves about the weather, local affairs, computer problems, server lag, girlfriends, their kids, their jobs — mundane stuff you jawbone about with folks you know.
Turns out, most of the American players think like you about Russians, but very few of the Russian players think like you about Americans.
Still, it’s curious how so many Rooskies like their new strong man. Liberalization was just a passing fad...
“Still, it’s curious how so many Rooskies like their new strong man.”
Ah, yes. One does begin to wonder how many really like him, versus how many pretend to like him owing to matters of personal security. Old memories fade slowly, and the imprint of an empire wherein one was not allowed to have complaints has endured.
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