U.S. protests Russian jet move on Air Force plane

The Pentagon says a Russian fighter jet intercepted a U.S. reconnaissance plane over the Baltic Sea last week in an aggressive, unsafe maneuver that recalls Cold War tensions.

The U.S. European Command said on Twitter that the U.S. "is raising this unprofessional incident with Russia in the appropriate diplomatic and official channels.''

Defense Department spokesman Mark Wright said Sunday that the Air Force RC-135U reconnaissance plane was flying a routine route in international airspace when a Russian SU-27 fighter jet flew close by "in an unsafe and unprofessional manner.''

"Unprofessional air intercepts have the potential to cause harm to all air crews involved. More importantly, the careless and unprofessional actions of a single pilot have the potential to escalate tensions between countries,'' Wright said.

"The nature of Russian air activity is expanding west into Europe and becoming more aggressive," he said. "This air activity takes place in the context of a changed security environment in view of Russia's aggression against Ukraine.''

The encounter took place April 7.

Russian Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov of the Russian Defense Ministry said "there were no emergency situations" during the interception of the U.S. plane, the Interfax News agency reported.

Russia accused the U.S. plane of approaching Russian airspace with its electronic transponder signal, which identifies a plane, turned off, The Wall Street Journal reported. Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, the U.S. European Command spokesman, said the plane's transponder was operational.