Russia almost SHOT down British RAF spy plane in near miss over Black Sea, leaked US intelligence documents reveal
- Russian Su-27 jets buzzed an RAF spy plane over the Black Sea on Sept. 29
- Britain’s Defense Secretary said a Russian missile had been launched “in the vicinity”.
- But leaked US intelligence documents showed that the plane was nearly shot down
A Russian fighter jet nearly shot down an RAF reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea last year, Western intelligence documents show.n an incident in which the UK could have been directly involved the Ukraine war.
On September 29, an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft was flying through international airspace close to the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula when it was buzzed by a squadron of Moscow’s Su-27 fighters.
British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace acknowledged the incident at the time, telling parliament that the Russian jets “recklessly” came within 15 feet of the RAF aircraft and that one “fired a missile nearby.”
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu blamed a technical glitch and Wallace, who had spoken to other Russian defense officials, accepted the explanation and drew a line under the incident.
But leaked US military documents have now revealed that the missile launch came agonizingly close to hitting the RAF aircraft in an incident described as ‘a near downing of UK RJ (Rivet Joint)’.
A Russian Su-27 fighter jet shadowing an RAF RC-135 spy plane over the Black Sea in September came close to shooting down the British plane
Two Russian Su-27 fighter jets were following the British plane when one suffered a ‘technical malfunction’ and fired a missile, Ben Wallace said (file image)
An RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint spy plane was flying over international waters near Crimea at the time of the September incident
If a Russian missile had blown Rivet Joint out of the sky over the Black Sea, the UK and its NATO allies might have been forced into war.
According to Article 5 of NATO’s founding treaty, member states agree that an armed attack against one or more of them ‘shall be regarded as an attack against all of them’.
Should such an attack nevertheless take place, any NATO member will assist the country under attack with whatever measures ‘it deems necessary’.
The RAF regularly conducts intelligence-gathering missions over the international waters of the Black Sea, the Baltic States and eastern Poland.
The role of the Rivet Joint aircraft is to suck up electronic transmissions and communications – the aircraft is also known as a ‘nuke sniffer’ for its ability to detect radioactivity.
British and US aircraft continued to carry out these reconnaissance flights after the chilling incident in September, but RAF surveillance aircraft are now escorted by Typhoon fighters as the US resorts to using unmanned surveillance drones.
Pentagon spokesman Brig. General Patrick Ryder said last month that it is important to keep the Black Sea and the airspace above it open to all nations.
“The Black Sea is a critical international seaway that supports many of our NATO allies, including Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey, and does not belong to one country,” he said.
Ryder’s comments came after yet another aerial incident in which Russian jets dumped fuel on a US surveillance drone last month and eventually crashed.
Video footage shows the Russian fighter jet approaching the US drone from behind and beginning to release fuel as it passes – according to the Pentagon
After the impact, the on-board camera shows a broken propeller (L) and a similar working propeller (R) spinning. Russia previously said it has not made contact with the drone
Drone footage showed the shocking moment when Moscow’s Su-27 jet approached the US MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) from behind on March 14 and clipped its propeller across international airspace.
US forces had to shoot down the $32 million surveillance drone in international waters after the encounter, sparking a race between Moscow and Washington to get it back.
Russian ships were spotted at the crash site on March 15 trying to find the debris, though the Pentagon insisted the parts could not be recovered and all information had been erased.
Moscow insisted its jet failed to make contact with the drone, instead blaming “sharp maneuvering” for the crash.
But experts say it was likely an accidental collision as Russian pilots used increasingly aggressive tactics to force the drone to change course.