fb-pixelRussian fighter jet intercepts US bomber over Baltic Sea - The Boston Globe Skip to main content

Russian fighter jet intercepts US bomber over Baltic Sea

A Russian fighter jet intercepted a US B-52 bomber over the Baltic Sea, the Russian Defense Ministry told Russian media outlets Tuesday.

Russian media quoted the ministry as saying that the Russian Su-27 was dispatched to intercept the target and approached the aircraft, identified it as a US strategic bomber B-52, and escorted it.

The B-52, the ministry said, was over international waters but flying near Russia’s state borders. A spokesman for the US European Command did not respond to a request for comment.

Several B-52s, along with a contingent of maintenance troops, arrived in the United Kingdom in recent days to participate in a series of NATO exercises. Sabre Strike, one of the multinational exercises, began last month and will take place in Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania during the coming weeks.

Advertisement



B-52 bombers are capable of holding 70,000 pounds of munitions and have been upgraded in past decades to drop everything from sea mines to nuclear-tipped cruise missiles. A detachment of the planes are currently participating in the air war against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

Last month, a Russian aircraft came within 20 feet of a US surveillance plane over the Baltic Sea in an incident the Pentagon called routine. US aircraft intercepted a number of Russian bombers near the coast of Alaska in May.

NATO jets intercepted Russian aircraft more than 100 times near the Baltic States in 2016, according to data provided by the Lithuania Defense Ministry.

WASHINGTON POST