Russian Jets Aggressively Fly Over U.S. Navy Ships in the Baltic

The Russians and the Americans have been playing the same game for a very long time. It started in the Cold War and continues to this day. From time to time, our aircraft brush against their airspace, and sometimes their aircraft brush against ours.

It’s not done with the intent of causing any real damage. It’s just a friendly reminder that they exist as a formidable foe, or it’s done to see if we’re still guarding our airspace. In times of peace it doesn’t garner much media attention, but when there are tensions between the US and Russia, you’ll find plenty of stories about these incidents.

More recently the US Navy has reported that Russian Su-24 aircraft have been making aggressive maneuvers near their ships in the Baltic Sea. Over the past few days they’ve flown incredibly close to these ships on several different occasions.

Admiral Mark Ferguson, the Commander of the US Navy in Europe and Africa noted “April 11-12, USS Donald Cook was operating in a professional manner in international waters conducting operations and exercises with our allies in the Baltic Sea…In my judgement these maneuvers in close proximity to Donald Cook are unprofessional and unsafe.”