Is the Cold War heating back up? The Pentagon briefed reporters Tuesday about an incident on April 23, when a Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jet buzzed a U.S. Air Force RC-135U spy plane over the Sea of Okhotsk.
Stars and Stripes quotes Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren as saying:
“The Su-27 approached the RC-135 across the nose of the US aircraft within approximately 100 feet.”
The Washington Free Beacon originally broke the story on Monday. When the Beacon pressed Warren for a response, he wrote in a statement:
“Senior department leaders have communicated our concerns directly to the Russian military.”
According to Bloomberg News, a reporter asked Warren during a Pentagon news conference why the Defense Department didn't release information of the close encounter sooner. Warren responded:
“I don’t have a good answer for you.”
World Atlas.com describes the location of the Sea of Okhotsk this way:
Positioned between the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Russian coastline, Sakhalin Island, the Japanese island of Hokkaido and the Kuril Islands, the Sea of Okhotsk is an extension of the North Pacific Ocean.
Here's video, courtesy of YouTube, of Russian Sukhoi Su-27 jets in action:
