Categories: RussiaTroubled Areas

Russian warplanes allegedly force US destroyer away from territorial waters in Black Sea

It looks like Russian Su-24s flew over US warship in Black Sea. Again.

According to several Russian media outlets, Russian Navy Su-24 Fencer jets “forced” a U.S. Navy destroyer to head towards neutral waters after it was noticed by Russian Black Sea monitoring stations heading into Russia’s territorial waters.

Reportedly, the U.S. Navy destroyer USS Ross was heading directly towards Russian waters after leaving the Romanian port of Costanta. Russian Su-24s were scrambled towards the warship.

After the close encounter with the Su-24 jets, the destroyer “then turned around and left for neutral waters,” says RT, suggesting an unlikely violation of the Russian territorial waters by the U.S. warship.

“It seems that the Americans did not forget the April 2014 incident when one Su-24 actually shut down all equipment on the new USS Donald Cook American destroyer with anti-missile system elements,” an unnamed source said to Sputnik News.

The mysterious source refers to the April 2014 incident when a Su-24 Fencer flew multiple passes at 500 feet above sea level, within 1,000 yards of the USS Donald Cook, the U.S. Navy destroyer operating in the Black Sea at that time: a behaviour that the ship commander considered “provocative and inconsistent with international agreements.”

Following the incident, speculations (fueled by propaganda) reported that the Su-24 jammed all the systems aboard USS Cook to such an extent all the onboard screens went black and 27 officers resigned as a consequence of the attack: a quite unbelievable and unlikely story.

Anyway, Russian Su-30s and Su-24s aircraft from Russia’s Black Sea Fleet launched from Novofedorvka, an airbase captured on Mar. 22, 2014, in western Crimea peninsula 70 kilometres north of Sevastopol, have conducted attack runs on NATO warships operating in the Black Sea recently.

Image credit: Andrey Zinchuv/Airforce.ru and U.S. Navy

 

About David Cenciotti
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
David Cenciotti

David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.

Show comments

View Comments

  • "Isn't this the same Aviationist that published Bill Sweetman's speculation last summer that a Ukrainian Su-25 shooting down any airliner is impossible because a Ukrainian pilot can't put on his oxygen mask above 15,000 feet and the Su-25 cockpit isn't pressurized?"

    No.

  • Funny how that Russian military technology never seems to work when used by their former client states.

  • If they must make stuff up why not go all the way and throw in UFO's, unicorns and Morla from the Neverending story.

  • Starting to think the Russian state propaganda machine is losing it's finesse. Either that or the Russian population are now so brainwashed that they'll actually believe this sort of thing. This story is less likely to be true than the Su-24 pilots getting lost and asking the USS Ross for directions.

  • That still does not matter, my point is that the US will go whereever it pleases, just as Russia will.

  • This is silly. A Russian missile commander would only need to push a couple of buttons and a hypersonic anti-ship missile would send the US destroyer to the bottom of the sea. No need to buzz the destroyer with a jet.

Recent Posts

NATO Tiger Meet Returns To Italy After 35 Years

Gioia del Colle Air Base will host 80 aircraft from 13 countries which will perform…

20 hours ago

Here’s One Of Two Russian Su-30s Intercepted By Italian F-35s Deployed To Poland

We have obtained a photo of one of the two Su-30 Flankers intercepted by the…

2 days ago

Czech Republic Approves F-35 Acquisition, Romania Could Be Next

The Czech government approved the deal for the acquisition of 24 F-35s that will replace…

3 days ago

U.S. Air Force National Museum Acquires Former Ukrainian Su-27UB Flanker

The Su-27 is expected to join the Museum’s Cold War Gallery this fall. The National…

4 days ago

Northrop Grumman Will Develop A New Advanced Stand-in Attack Weapon For The F-35

The U.S. Air Force has selected the company to develop and test SiAW, the new…

5 days ago

Eurofighter Confident Its Typhoon Is ‘The Most Attractive Solution For Poland’

The Boeing F-15EX  is not the only option on the table to address Poland's potential…

5 days ago