Russia and NATO were one step away from a potential all-out war last year after a Russian fighter jet almost shot down a British surveillance aircraft, the Washington Post claimed on Sunday, citing a new document from a trove recently leaked from the Pentagon.
The incident, which occurred in late September 2022, was much more serious than London had previously admitted, the newspaper claimed. In October 2022, UK Secretary of Defence Ben Wallace told Parliament about the incident, adding that Moscow blamed it on a technical malfunction, and London accepted the explanation.
The document seen by the Post describes it as a “near-shoot down of UK RJ” – a reference to the ‘River Joint’ moniker common for the RC-135 reconnaissance aircraft used to collect radio transmissions and electronic messages. The UK said in October that the plane had been intercepted by two Russian Su-27 fighters over the Black Sea, with one of them “releasing a missile” near the plane.
According to the newspaper, the incident could have triggered Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, possibly leading to the direct involvement of NATO forces in the conflict in Ukraine, or even a direct conflict between Moscow and the military bloc.
Neither the US, the UK, nor Russia have commented on the contents of the document, the Washington Post said. The newspaper also reported that the US took a more cautious approach towards reconnaissance missions in the Black Sea region, instructing the Air Force to stay away from the Crimean Peninsula.
A map contained in the document shows several lines drawn over sections of the Black Sea to mark the areas where American surveillance aircraft can and cannot fly, according to the Post. One of them goes around 12 nautical miles off the coast of Crimea – the distance that marks the territorial waters of a nation under international law.
Another line drawn around 50 nautical miles from the shore is called ‘SECDEF Directed Standoff’. According to the outlet, this line may indicate that US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered the Air Force to keep their aircraft away from the peninsula.
Unlike France and the UK, which made crewed surveillance flights over the Black Sea, the US relied on drones, including the RQ-4 Global Hawk, the RQ-170 Sentinel, and the MQ-9 Reaper, the document said, adding that several unmanned flights take place every month.
In March, the Pentagon accused Russian pilots of reckless flying and claimed that one of the Russian jets had clipped the propeller of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing it to go down. Russia denied hitting the drone or using weapons against it. It also said the US aircraft was flying with its transponder switched off in a no-go zone declared by the Russian military.
A video reportedly shot by the drone only shows a Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet buzzing over it and allegedly ejecting fuel in the process. According to CNN, the Pentagon has further rerouted its surveillance drone flights over the Black Sea in the wake of the incident.
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