A Russian Sukhoi Su-27 jet fighter did a barrel roll over a U.S. reconnaissance plane in international airspace, CNN said on Friday, citing two U.S. defense officials in the Baltic Sea region.
CNN said the fighter came within about 100 feet (30 meters) of the American reconnaissance plane as it performed the dangerous, high-speed maneuver.
The United States has made formal protests in the past when the militaries of other countries have performed similar maneuvers. The incident comes amid increasingly aggressive military behavior toward Western countries. Russian jets recently buzzed a U.S. warship in the Baltic Sea.
Russian military jets flying from Syria are seen shortly before landing on the runway of an airbase in Buturlinovka in Voronezh region, Russia, March 15, 2016. REUTERS/Russian Ministry of Defence/Olga Balashova/Handout via Reuters
US FEELS PROVOKED BY RUSSIAN FORCES
This is not the first time Russian forces have chosen to display force of power with US military.
Two warplanes flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea , the U.S. military said, with one official describing them as one of the most aggressive interactions in recent memory.
The repeated flights by the Sukhoi SU-24 warplanes, which also flew near the ship a day earlier, were so close they created wake in the water, with 11 passes, the official said. The planes carried no visible weaponry, the official said.
A Russian KA-27 Helix helicopter also made seven passes around the USS Donald Cook, taking pictures. The nearest Russian territory was about 70 nautical miles away in its enclave of Kaliningrad, which sits between Lithuania and Poland.
“They tried to raise them (the Russian aircraft) on the radio but they did not answer,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, adding the U.S. ship was in international waters.
The U.S. military released photos and videos of the incidents. In one photograph, an SU-24 appears to pass at extremely low altitude over the Donald Cook’s bow.
The events were reminiscent of the Cold War, when a series of close calls led to a bilateral agreement aimed at avoiding dangerous interactions at sea that was signed in 1972 by then-Secretary of the Navy John Warner and Soviet Admiral Sergei Gorshkov.
The agreement prohibited “simulated attacks against aircraft or ships, performing aerobatics over ships, or dropping hazardous objects near them.”
(Reuters reporting by David Alexander; Editing by Tim Ahmann)
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