US drone carries out surveillance flight near Russia's Crimea - again

Sputnik
Sun, 18 Aug 2019 11:35 UTC

© CC0 Europe

Last month, a US strategic reconnaissance aircraft RC-135V Rivet Joint was spotted making a three-hour-long flight near Russia's western border in the Baltic region.

A US Air Force UAV has carried out a surveillance flight near the Russian side of the Black Sea shore, according to information provided by the website Plane Radar.

The UAV, Global Hawk, lifted off from an air base in Italy on Saturday morning, checked the demarcation line in Donbass, Ukraine and then headed to the Russian border.

In late July, it was reported that two other aircraft were seen near Crimea. The first one was P-8A Poseidon that took off from an air base in Sicily at 08:05 GMT and flew near the Crimean border for several hours.

The second one, a Lockheed ЕР-3Е Orion, took off from a Greek air base at around 09:10 GMT and flew within 32 kilometres of the Russian border.

Comment: As a 'sign of good will' Russia has allowed US spy planes to fly over Russian territory and so one wonders whether these other missions are really necessary or if they're just attempts are to antagonize the Russia, or is it just rampant paranoia? Both?

• Su-27 intercepts & chases US spy plane away from Russia's borders (March 2019
• Russian Su-27 fighter jet intercepts US spy plane over Baltic Sea (January 2019)

Meanwhile, the West, increasingly lost to its hysteria, is seeing monsters where there are none:

• US military complains Venezuelan jet 'aggressively shadowed' its spy plane...and then blames Russia
• Russian spy plane! Biden aide freaks out over normal treaty flight in Chicago air space
• Fake intercept: Russian MoD refutes UK claims of chasing off six Su-24 bombers over Black Sea