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| credit: Michael Ramirez, Investors Business Daily Wackydoodle sez: I hear it comes with power steering too! |
The latest close encounter between United States' forces and Russia took place in the Baltic Sea this week off the coast of Kaliningrad, a Russian oblast. Video shows Su24M fighter-bombers buzzing a Navy destroyer, USS Donald Cook, at very low altitude. The supersonic, all-weather, variable-wing "Fencer-Ds" (NATO designation) were apparently unarmed. An Su-24 was shot down by Turkish F-16s during Russia's aerial intervention in the Syrian civil war. The Americans described the incident of hot-dog flying as "simulated attack runs" while the Russian's minimized it as routine practice. The fact is the Cook was only 43 miles from a Russian naval base, and is armed with Tomahawk and ASROC missile systems. This ship was subjected to similar low-level runs as it cruised the Black Sea in 2014. Its home port is Rota, Spain as part of Destroyer Squadron 60. How would the USAF respond if a Russian destroyer appeared off Pensacola, Florida? Somebody could get hurt out there.