Russia scrambles fighter jet to escort U.S. spy plane over Black Sea – RIA
28 Nov 2020
MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia scrambled an Su-27 fighter jet to intercept a U.S. RC-135 reconnaissance plane flying over neutral waters in the Black Sea, the RIA news agency cited Russia’s defence ministry as saying on Saturday.
Russia said its warplane returned to its base after the U.S. reconnaissance aircraft turned away from Russia’s border. Similar incidents have happened in the area several times this year.
(Reporting by Tom Balmforth; Editing by Alex Richardson)
Published at www.thestar.com.my
American missiles capable of striking Crimea fired into Black Sea as risk of confrontation on Russia’s borders continues to grow
25 Nov, 2020
The US military has conducted rocket-launch tests as part of NATO exercises, firing from Romania into the strategically vital Black Sea, amid rising tension on Russia’s borders.
Russian media reported on Wednesday that more than 130 soldiers and 30 units of military hardware were involved in the exercises, which saw two advanced weapons systems fire salvos at targets in the water. The M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket (HIMARS) launchers were airlifted from US bases in Germany specifically for the drills.
Forbes covered the operation closely and noted that “it’s just 250 miles (440km) across the Black Sea from the Romanian coast to Crimea.” It went on to speculate about the rationale behind Washington’s decision to trial the weapons systems in such close proximity to Russia, saying that “Army HIMARS flying in and out of Romania pose a serious, and unpredictable, threat to Russian forces in the region.” The range of the launchers is around 300km, signaling that US forces might be able to use them to strike installations on the Crimean Peninsula, which reintegrated with Russia in 2014.
Read more at www.rt.com
Are you invading, or just lost? Russian navy threatens to ram US warship ‘John McCain’ after it crosses border near Vladivostok
24 Nov, 2020
A notorious US naval destroyer sparked a diplomatic incident on Tuesday morning after Russia claimed that it had launched an incursion into its territorial waters.
The USS John S McCain, a specialist combat ship designed to hunt submarines, was operating in the Sea of Japan (also called the East Sea), off the coast of the Russian Far Eastern capital, Vladivostok. Authorities say it was more than two kilometers inside Russia’s internationally recognized maritime border.
A statement from the Ministry of Defense in Moscow said that the vessel had “violated” Russian waters and was “warned of the unacceptability of its actions” by the Udaloy-class destroyer Admiral Vinogradov, which had been tailing it. The communiqué added that sailors had told the American ship of the “potential of resorting to ramming to force the trespasser out of the territory.”
Read more at https://www.rt.com/russia/507633-navy-threat-warship-border/
