Russia nearly shot down British RAF spy plane over Black Sea

A Russian fighter jet attempted to blow a manned RAF reconnaissance plane out of the sky over the Black Sea, but the missile failed in an incident US defense officials revealed was much more serious than first thought.

The blundering pilot mistakenly believed that a radar operator on the ground had given him permission to fire on the British plane in September last year.

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.

One of the Russian pilots grabbed hold of the British plane and released it – but the deadly missile failed to launch properly and missed in an act that could have brought Britain and NATO into direct conflict with Vladimir Putin’s forces.

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.”

But two US defense officials commented on top-secret intelligence documents leaked online told the New York Times today that the incident was much more serious than first thought.

Earlier this week, a British defense source disputed the version of events, telling MailOnline: “These reports contain inaccuracies and do not reflect what happened in international airspace over the Black Sea,” referring to Defense Secretary Wallace’s comments to the parliament.

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’.

If such an attack does occur, any NATO member will assist the country that has been attacked with whatever action 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.

The details emerged in a cache of leaked top-secret documents showing British and US military activity since the invasion of Ukraine.

The source of the highly embarrassing leak remained a mystery yesterday as US intelligence chiefs launched a criminal investigation to find out who was responsible.

Although more limited in scope, the release of documentation of such a high rating is the most alarming incident of its kind since the 2013 WikiLeaks scandal, when 700,000 documents, videos and audio files were leaked.

Dozens of highly sensitive documents were crudely photographed and shared online. Yesterday, British defense officials were in talks with their US counterparts as the leaks include incidents involving British troops.

The documents also cover the conflict in Ukraine, including discussions about the death toll on both sides and remaining ammunition stockpiles – a sensitive issue ahead of the long-awaited spring strikes by Russian and Ukrainian forces.

While the papers have not been independently verified, most intelligence sources consider them to be genuine – although they are said to contain inaccuracies.

The documents include an account of an incident last year when a British intelligence-gathering aircraft was harassed by a pair of Russian fighter jets over the Black Sea.

At the time, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace told Parliament that a Russian fighter jet had launched a missile ‘near’ the British ‘Rivet Joint’ aircraft due to a malfunction.

The documents paint a darker picture of the September 2022 incident, suggesting that the Russian missile came close to hitting the RAF aircraft. The intelligence sheet describes a ‘near shooting of a British RJ’.

Following the leak, British defense sources insisted that Mr Wallace’s account was accurate and that the safety of the aircraft and crew was not at risk.

British policy towards fighting China is also discussed in the documents, which are remarkably comprehensive in their scope of subject matter.

The Kremlin has refused to admit responsibility for the leak. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin suggested that there was a general tendency to blame everything on Russia in such circumstances.

British intelligence expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon also kept an open mind. He said, “The loss of these documents is embarrassing to the Pentagon more than anything and should not negatively affect any Ukrainian battle plans.

It could confuse Russian military planners who will wonder if they are real or some other clever war ploy. It may even be a plan by the Russian government to provoke discord between the Allies and Ukraine. One must keep an open mind. I wouldn’t just take them.’

Some of the documents have been online for months, although their presence on obscure Internet servers has only attracted attention in recent days.

The leak is so concerning that the US Department of Defense has referred it to the Justice Department, which has opened a criminal investigation. An early assessment has found that the papers would have been available to thousands of defense and intelligence officials — one or more of whom have seemingly posted them online.

Since the leak first came to light in March, investigators have pursued theories ranging from someone simply sharing the documents to show off the work they were doing to a mole within the US intelligence community or the military.

Daniel Hoffman, a former senior CIA undercover agent, said that given the past activities of Moscow’s intelligence agencies, it was “highly likely” that Russian agents posted documents related to Ukraine as part of a Russian disinformation operation.

He said such operations – designed to sow confusion and dissension among Russian opponents – were a “classic” practice of Russian intelligence agencies to leak authentic documents containing false information. The aim, he said, was to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the US, Kiev’s biggest supplier of military aid.

Some national security experts and US officials say they suspect the leaker could be a US citizen. The White House has declined to discuss publicly who might be responsible for the breach.