For the third time this week, Russia’s Defense Ministry is reporting the interception of multiple US spy planes near the Russian border. This has become increasingly common in recent weeks, and a source of new tensions.
Russia reported a two-plane interception over the Black Sea over the weekend, and a virtually identical incident on Wednesday. In both cases, the US spy planes were approaching the border but veered off when challenged.
In addition to the Black Sea incidents, the Defense Ministry reported a very similar incident with similar planes took place Tuesday in the Baltic Sea. It’s not clear exactly where this was, but tensions are on the rise around Belarus, which is a likely region for US planes to be active.
It is not uncommon for US and Russian spy planes to challenge one another’s air defense in times of tension, and while the US tends to act irked when Russia does it, they often don’t even discuss it when they are doing so.
These are happening shockingly often now, and while they’ve been incident free, the risk is there that a plane gets too close or doesn’t change course soon enough, and the whole thing escalates into a shooting conflict which would be bad for everyone.
“the risk that a plane gets too close or doesn’t change course soon enough, and the whole thing escalates into a shooting conflict”
That`s exactly the US/NAT0`s aim, but Russia won`t take the bait and will not take it further unless there is a clear violation of it`s air space.
Of the two countries, we’re the only one stupid enough to start WW3 over the shooting down of one or even a few lousy military planes.