RIA: Russian aircraft head off U.S. destroyer in Black Sea

[Purveyor]

Russian military aircraft were scrambled to head off a U.S. warship that was acting “aggressively” in the Black Sea, state news agency RIA reported on Saturday, citing an anonymous source in Russia’s armed forces in Crimea.

The source was quoted as saying that the U.S. destroyer Ross was moving along the edge of Russia’s territorial waters and heading in their direction.

“The crew of the ship acted provocatively and aggressively, which concerned the operators of monitoring stations and ships of the Black Sea Fleet,” RIA quoted the source as saying.

“Su-24 attack aircraft demonstrated to the American crew readiness to harshly prevent a violation of the frontier and to defend the interests of the country.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry was not immediately available to comment on the report.

The incident is the latest example of encounters between Russian and Western militaries, as tensions continue over the crisis in Ukraine and Russia’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula, home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet, last year.

more...

http://www.newshour.com.bd/2015/05/30/ria-russian-aircraft-head-off-u-s-destroyer-in-black-sea/

[HassleCat]

1. Oh, Great

Back to cold war "brinksmanship." When I was in the navy, we used to face off against Soviet warships all the time. Both sides would try to maneuver themselves into a position where they had right-of-way, according to the rules of navigation, then force the other ship to change course or back down in some way. Rumor has it there were several collisions, but they were not made public because neither side felt it had a clear public relations (propaganda) advantage. On my own ship, we had to change course and reverse the engines to avoid hitting a Soviet "fishing trawler" which was actually an intelligence gathering ship. I was in the engine room, so I didn't see it, but some of the people who did see it said we came within abut 50 feet of the Soviet ship. Nice to see both sides are up to the same old tricks, stuck in the past, still trying to provoke the other guys.