Russian fighter makes ‘unsafe’ intercept of U.S. Navy jet

A Russian fighter aircraft made an “unsafe close range intercept” with a U.S. Navy jet over the Black Sea on Wednesday.

Pentagon spokesman Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said in an emailed statement that the Russian Su-27 came “extremely close” and spent 19 minutes intercepting the U.S. P-8A Poseidon. The P-8 was conducting “routine operations in international airspace,” Davis said.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov told Interfax that the U.S. P-8 was operating without a transponder signal, causing the Russians to launch their Su-27s from a base in Crimea. Konashenkov said Russia’s jet approached the P-8 twice before it “abruptly changed course” and flew away from the Russian border.

“The Russian pilots acted in strict conformity with air traffic international rules,” Konashenkov said. “This is not the first attempt by the NATO aviation to approach the Russian state border to conduct reconnaissance in the areas where the Caucasus 2016 strategic command-and-staff exercise is held.”

According to the Russian Ministry of Defense website, the exercise runs Sept. 5-10 and involves more than 12,000 troops.

It is unclear what the P-8 was doing over the Black Sea, though the near-landlocked body of water is an operating area for Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.

Wednesday’s incident is just one in a series of interactions this year between Russian and U.S. forces that are reminiscent of the Cold War. Since Russia’s incursions into Ukraine in 2014, Russian military activity along its borders and around NATO airspace has spiked. On Tuesday, Estonia accused Russia of violating its airspace for the fourth time this year and in November a Russian jet was shot down by a Turkish F-16 after it crossed into Turkish airspace while flying a bombing run over Syria.