An American strategic bomber Boeing B-52H Stratofortress was spotted near the Russian borders over the Baltic Sea. This was reported in the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
“On March 15, 2019, the B-52 plane of the US Air Force made a flight with a transponder turned on over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea to a parallel course to the territorial waters of the Russian Federation,” the statement reads.
The defense department stressed that the plane did not come closer to the Russian border than 150 km. In this case, the American strategic bomber turned back immediately after it was taken to escort by the duty means of the Russian air defense systems, the department stressed.
Earlier, the flight monitoring service PlaneRadar reported that the Boeing B-52H, at an altitude of approximately 8,000 meters, flew past the borders of Poland, approaching the Kaliningrad region.
“The strategic bomber of the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress US Air Force, airborne number 61-0009, imitation of the bombing of the base of the Baltic Fleet,” - said in Twitter-account PlaneRadar.
16:25 Moscow time
Strategic bomber #Boeing B-52H #Stratofortress USAF: us :, tail number 61-0009, imitation of the bombing of the base of the Baltic fleet. #USAF # B52pic.twitter.com / yzSJIWjXCk
Note that the B-52 bomber has been in service with the US Air Force since 1955. The aircraft is able to carry on board various types of weapons, including nuclear ones.
The last time the monitoring portals noticed an American bomber near the borders of the Russian Federation in September 2018, when it was approaching the coast of the Murmansk region, flying near the Russian military base “Arctic trefoil” located on the Franz Josef Land Archipelago.
USAF B-52H 61-0015 CHAOS43 departed by Bourgeois & Arctic Ocean pic.twitter.com/kLxycv2hnM
- Aircraft Spots (@AircraftSpots) September 15, 2018Along with this, on Friday, March 15, the portal PlaneRadar recorded the activity of the US Air Force on the southern borders of Russia. First, the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B-40 Global strategic reconnaissance drone made a “reconnaissance flight along the Russian Black Sea coast”. Then, in this area, the Boeing P-8A Poseidon US Navy was spotted.
At the borders of Russia
Foreign aircraft regularly conduct intelligence activities near the Russian borders. As follows from the infographics of the newspaper of the Armed Forces of Russia "Krasnaya Zvezda", for the week (from 4 to 10 March), 17 aircraft carried out reconnaissance along the borders of Russia. At the same time, the Russian fighters of the air defense on-duty forces three times took off into the air in order to prevent a violation of the state border.
One of these episodes occurred on March 6 over the Baltic Sea, when a Russian multi-role fighter Su-27 intercepted a US Air Force Boeing RC-135 aircraft, modifications of which are used for electronic intelligence, data collection and aerial photography. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation also published a video made from the cockpit of the Su-27. The published shows how the fighter catches up and for some time accompanies the American reconnaissance aircraft.
We add that similar actions were taken at the end of January against another representative of the United States Air Force - the P-8A Poseidon anti-aircraft patrol aircraft.
At the same time, not only the Americans, but also other states, in particular, Sweden, are engaged in reconnaissance near the borders of the Russian Federation. The latest incident so far occurred on February 19, when the Su-27 fighter was lifted into the air over the Baltic Sea after it detected the Swedish air force approaching the Gulfstream plane.
Meanwhile, the Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense accused the Russian side of a dangerous rapprochement, calling the fighter’s crew’s actions "inappropriate and unprofessional."
Meanwhile, the Russian military stressed that the Su-27 approached the Swedish plane at a safe distance "for visual identification" and, after removing a foreign aircraft from the state border of the Russian Federation, returned to the home airfield.
The "increased intensity of military intelligence activities" of other states near the Russian borders was one of the topics of the operational meeting of President Vladimir Putin with members of the country's Security Council on March 7.
During the collegium of the FSB on March 6, the president called for the most rigorous and rigorous control over the protection of data on the development, testing and production of Russian weapons systems, as well as information on advanced military and dual-use technologies.
“We see that foreign intelligence agencies are striving to increase their activity in the Russian direction, they are seeking access to information of a political, economic, scientific and technological nature by all means. The more reliable your work should be, ”the head of state said.