RUSSIA, CHINA AIR THREAT GROWING

Warplanes routinely buzz U. S. aircraft patrolling over international waters

Chinese and Russian warplanes have been increasingly aggressive intercepting U. S. military aircraft and patrolling near America’s West Coast, prompting the Air Force’s top combat officer to label their provocations one of his top worries.

Air Force Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, who leads Air Combat Command, said in an interview with USA TODAY that meeting the challenge from the Russian and Chinese to flights in international airspace is essential but dangerous.

“Our concern is a resurgent Russia and a very, very aggressive China,” Carlisle said.

Both countries are intent on expanding their spheres of influence — Russia in Eastern Europe and the Pacific, with China focusing much of its effort over the disputed South China Sea.

“Their intent is to get us not to be there,” Carlisle said. “So that the influence in those international spaces is controlled only by them. My belief is that we cannot allow that to happen. We have to continue to operate legally in international airspace and international waterways. We have to continue to call them out when they are being aggressive and unsafe.”

The stakes are high. Aggressive intercepts of U. S. patrol planes run the risk of mid- air collisions that would escalate tensions among nuclear powers.

“Any accident that occurs while the U. S. military is playing cat and mouse with Russian or Chinese forces could escalate into a real fight,” said Loren Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute.

An increasing number have occurred in recent months, Carlisle said, with fighters from Russia and China buzzing perilously close to U. S. military aircraft.

On May 17, two Chinese fighter jets flew dangerously close to a U. S. Navy patrol plane over the South China Sea. In late April, a Russian fighter pilot performed a “barrel roll” over the top of an Air Force RC- 135 reconnaissance plane, Carlisle said, above the Black Sea. There has also been an uptick in long- range bomber activity from the Russians in Eastern Europe and extending to flights off the U. S. West Coast, Carlisle said.

For China, the goal appears to be establishing control of the international airspace over the South China Sea. There are conflicting territorial claims among countries in the region, with China upping the ante by establishing military bases on artificial islands around the region.

GETTY IMAGES A Russian Sukhoi Su- 24 attack aircraft makes a very low altitude pass by USS Donald Cook ( DDG 75) on April 12 in the Baltic Sea.