Russian Jets Buzz US Ship on Black Sea

USS Ross
(Image courtesy US Navy)

The headline pretty much says it all, minus two teensy little details:

Russian military aircraft were scrambled to head off a U.S. warship that was acting “aggressively” in the Black Sea, state news agency RIA reported on Saturday, but the Pentagon denied any unusual behavior.

RIA quoted an anonymous source in Russia’s armed forces in Crimea as saying that the guided missile destroyer USS Ross was moving along the edge of Russia’s territorial waters and heading in their direction.

“The crew of the ship acted provocatively and aggressively, which concerned the operators of monitoring stations and ships of the Black Sea Fleet,” RIA quoted the source as saying.

“Su-24 attack aircraft demonstrated to the American crew readiness to harshly prevent a violation of the frontier and to defend the interests of the country.”

I wouldn’t want to be flying a mid-’70s vintage Su-24 against a modern USN Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer.

Just sayin’.