Watch Armed Russian Fighters Dangerously Buzz a U.S. Navy Patrol Jet
The U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon was flying in international airspace when two armed Russian Su-35E fighters hemmed into it.
The fighters were flying so close that the Navy aircraft couldn't turn without running into one of the smaller, more nimble jets.
The Russian jets were carrying both infrared and radar-guided missiles.
The Pentagon is accusing Russian fighter jets of flying in an “unsafe and unprofessional manner” following an incident high above the Mediterranean Sea.
On Tuesday, two Su-35 fighter jets belonging to the Russian Aerospace Force intercepted a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol plane, flying too close to the larger plane. The two jets lived up to their NATO code name, “Flanker-E,” flanking the larger P-8 from both sides—seemingly within 50 feet—and preventing it from safely maneuvering.
These videos, taken on both sides of the P-8A, confirm the Navy’s account, with the camouflaged Russian fighters indeed flying very close to the Poseidon. The fighter on the starboard side even appears to hide behind the larger plane’s CFM56 turbofan engine (above), an especially dangerous situation. The incident was reportedly the fourth close intercept between U.S and Russian forces since April.
The P-8A Poseidon is the U.S. Navy’s new maritime patrol aircraft. Derived from the 737 commercial jetliner, the P-8A is designed to patrol and conduct surveillance over large swaths of ocean. The P-8A is equipped with a broad array of surveillance equipment, including search radars and electronics capable of intercepting and storing communications and other electromagnetic signals for later analysis.
The aircraft is also designed as a submarine hunter, meant to hunt submarines with sonobuoys and attack them with air-dropped torpedoes. The P-8A can also carry the AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile. The aircraft involved in yesterday’s incident was likely operating from Naval Air Station Sigonella on the island of Sicily.
The Su-35 is the latest version of the 1980s-era Su-27 Flanker multi-role fighter jet. It's roughly equivalent to the F/A-18E Super Hornet. At least one of the Flanker-Es involved in Tuesday’s incident (top) was armed for air-to-air combat, equipped with a total of six air-to-air missiles.
The aircraft carried two R-27T (NATO: AA-10 “Alamo”) infrared guided air-to-air missiles, the rough equivalent of America’s AIM-9X Sidewinder missile. The fighter was also equipped with four R-77 (“AA-12 Adder”) radar-guided missiles, similar to the American AMRAAM. The fighters likely sortied from Khmeimim Air Base, Russia’s sprawling base in Syria.
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