A Russian fighter jet was scrambled on Monday to intercept a pair of U.S. strategic bombers flying over the Baltic Sea, Russia’s defense ministry said.
“On March 20, 2023, radars of the Western Military District Air Defense force on duty detected two airborne targets over the Baltic Sea, flying towards the state border of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said, as per Russian state media TASS. “The targets were identified as two U.S. Air Force B-52H strategic bombers.”
A single Su-35 fighter jet took to the air to “prevent violations of the state border” by the American warplanes that allegedly reached a “designated air patrol area,” but returned to its home base after the targets moved away from Russian territory, according to the ministry.
“No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was permitted,” the ministry said, without specifying near which part of the Russian Baltic border the incident took place. Russia directly borders four NATO members in the region: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and Poland via its Kaliningrad coastal enclave.
In a statement released Tuesday, the U.S. Air Force in Europe said that the bombers were conducting a mission with NATO allies and partners in Estonian airspace as a part of their “normally scheduled training operations.”
“The flights remained within Estonian airspace the entire flight at an approx. distance of 50NM from Russian air space,” the statement reads. “At no point did B-52’s make contact with Russian aircraft.”
The development comes days after two Russian fighter jets confronted and eventually forced downed a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea near Russian-controlled Crimea.
According to the Pentagon, the Russian Su-27s on March 14 encountered the General Atomics MQ-9 “Reaper” off Ukraine’s southern coast and harassed the unmanned aircraft for at least 30 minutes, flying in front of it and dumping fuel on it. One of the Russian warplanes then clipped a propeller on the drone, prompting the U.S. operators to ditch it in international waters.
In what appeared to be an attempt to deescalate the situation, U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley said he wasn’t exactly sure whether the Russian pilots had deliberately caused the $30 million drone to crash.
“Was it intentional or not? Don’t know yet,” he said at a March. 15 press conference. “We know the intercept was intentional. We know the aggressive behavior was intentional. We also know it was very unprofessional.”
Milley’s comments were echoed by John Kirby, the National Security Council spokesperson for the White House.
“At best, it’s reckless flying,” he said. “At worst, it’s reckless and incompetent.”
Meanwhile, the Russian pilots involved in the incident have been awarded for their actions. On March 17, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu recommended the pilots for a medal, praising their effort to prevent the American drone from entering Russian-restricted airspace.
“Russian Defense Minister Army General Sergey Shoigu has issued an order to bestow state awards on the pilots of the Su-27 planes who did not allow the US MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle to violate the airspace restricted for use during the special military operation,” the ministry said in a statement, reported TASS.
Following the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Russia imposed a flying restriction on airspace over the peninsula and a part of the international waters surrounding it. Moscow insisted that the ban was in line with “international norms.”
The Russian government also claimed that the pilots “did not use on-board weapons, made no contact with the UAV and safely returned to their home airfield.”
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