With summer heating up, it appears as though the US Air Force finds Russia’s Black Sea particularly inviting, as the Russian military has intercepted American jets there for the fourth time in just over one week.
The US Air Force seemingly could not decide who should be next to enjoy the scenic splendors of the Black Sea shoreline, deciding to send two of its surveillance planes to watch over the area at the same time on Thursday.
The jets were promptly intercepted, however, by a Russian Su-27 fighter jet, which was scrambled to escort the “aerial targets” approaching the nation’s border.
The planes were identified as an RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft and a Р-8А Poseidon maritime surveillance plane. “There were no violations of the border of the Russian Federation by American reconnaissance aircraft,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement.
A video taken from the cockpit of the Russian jet shows the two American planes flying at a relatively close distance. When the US planes turned away from the Russian border, the Su-27 returned to its home airfield, the statement said.
US surveillance aircraft have been showing a particular interest in Russia’s Black Sea of late, despite the fact that this is an area located some 8,000 kilometers away from US territory. Indeed, this is the fourth time Russian jets were scrambled to intercept US planes near the country’s borders in the region in just nine days.
All the encounters forced the US spy aircraft to change course and move away from Russia’s airspace. US surveillance and long-range bomber planes, as well as other NATO aircraft, have frequently been spotted near Russia’s borders in recent years.
Yet, it remains unclear what exactly is luring the US spy planes to the Black Sea.
Andrey Krasov, the first deputy head of the Russian State Duma’s Defense Committee believes that, while some of them might indeed be reconnaissance sorties, others are just “provocative.”
