Online: | |
Visits: | |
Stories: |
Story Views | |
Now: | |
Last Hour: | |
Last 24 Hours: | |
Total: |
With recent reports of Russian strategic bombers penetrating U.S. airspace, encroaching in British airspace, and generally pushing the envelope of intimidation with other nations’ defenses, evidence of mounting tensions between the Putin regime and the West continues to pile up. According to The Moscow Times, Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine and the United States’ expression of support for Ukrainian sovereign interests has turned up the heat of global friction between Moscow and Washington.
“…Russian bombers forced NATO to scramble jets to intercept Russian military aircraft over 400 times last year — more than twice as often as in 2013,” reports The Times in an article dated March 19, 2015.
Now, there’s been a close encounter between a Russian attack jet and a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Black Sea. According to The Washington Post, the USS Ross was on an 11-day cruise in the region, conducting exercises with the Ukrainian Navy, when a Russian SU-24 Fencer attack jet appeared in the distance.
As the warplane approached very rapidly, sailors aboard the Ross determined that the jet had “clean” wings, indicating it was carrying no weapons. However, it did roar past the destroyer at fairly close range — close enough to be easily caught on video. The U.S. Navy released the brief clip of the warplane “buzzing” the Ross — an event that military officials said was not necessarily hostile. In fact, a Navy spokesman told The Washington Post that several of the Russian attack jets and the Ross “communicated safely” over the course of a couple of days.
However, this close encounter could certainly be seen as part of a pattern of pushback by the Putin government to let Western nations know that it’s not afraid to assert its military might. According to USNI News, the Ross has left the Black Sea, but not before Russian “state controlled media published reports that Sukhoi SU-24 Fencer fighter (sic) were scrambled to chase the destroyer away from the Russian-controlled Crimean peninsula.”
By clicking on the video above, you can watch the short clip of the Russian attack aircraft roaring past the USS Ross. You might notice the extraordinary number of views this video has received in just a few days — close to 3 million as of this writing.
This post originally appeared on Western Journalism – Equipping You With The Truth
something crazy…I expected the jet to paint bomb the boat or something, not do a fly by. the only thing crazy about this post is your use of language.