One US strategic bomber B-52H, which approached Russia’s airspace on Sunday, was escorted out of Russian airspace by three Russian fighters Sukhoi-35S that have been scrambled, Russia’s National Defense Command Center told Russian media quoted by Reuters.
The center’s statement says that Russia’s air defense radars on duty in the Eastern Military Region spotted on Sunday an air target over the Pacific Ocean that was approaching Russia’s airspace prompting the air defense to scramble three Sukhoi-35S fighter planes to identify and escort the foreign plane out of the region.
The center stressed that the Russian fighters strictly followed the international rules of using airspace.
After the US plane moved away from the Russian border, according to the Russian military, the Sukhoi-25S fighters returned to base/
Previously in August, two Russian Su-27 Flanker pilots intercepted a US Air Force B-52 bomber over international waters in the Black Sea.
The US Air Force pointed that the B-52 was conducting routine operations in international airspace in the region, where US aircraft frequently fly.
Gen. Jeff Harrigian, the commander of US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, issued a press release after the incident blaming Russian pilots for flying in an unsafe and unprofessional manner within 100 feet of the B-52, causing turbulence and restricting the B-52’s ability to maneuver.
He warned that such actions increase the risk of midair collisions and are unnecessary and inconsistent
NATO, on the other hand, scrambled fighter jets 10 times in March to track and intercept an unusually rare peak of Russian bombers and fighters over the North Sea, Black Sea and Baltic Sea.
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