Sao Paulo
The United States IndoPacific Command released another video on Thursday (26) showing a near collision between a Chinese fighter jet and an American aircraft. This time, Beijing’s J11 came within three meters of the B52H strategic bomber, which was close from an aviation perspective.
The incident occurred on Tuesday night (24) over the South China Sea, one of the main sources of conflict in the Western Pacific. Beijing considers its territorial waters to be 85% of this region, a point disputed by its neighbors and the United States, which often sends warships and planes to patrol the socalled free shipping zones.
The video shows the fighter, a Chinese version of Russia’s Sukhoi Su27, approaching quickly and using the air brakes to try to control its speed. “The pilot flew in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, putting the two aircraft at risk of collision. We assume the pilot did not know how close he was,” the command said.
According to the Americans, the risk was exacerbated by the fact that it was night and visibility was limited. The fighter flew in front and to the side of the large bomber, which is used in nuclear and conventional attacks. This is not the first time the US has complained about this, on the contrary: on the 17th, the Defense Department published a compilation of similar incidents. Beijing did not respond.
Eavesdropping incidents are common in all disputed locations around the world, and military observers believe it is only a matter of time before something worse happens such as a Chinese fighter jet crashing after ramming an American spy plane that was landing could, in 2012.
In the Black Sea, near the theater of operations in the Ukraine war, a Russian Su27 fighter jet shot down an American Reaper drone earlier this year, and almost the same thing happened several times in the skies over Syria.
Flights with Russian nuclearcapable strategic bombers such as the Tu95 are common in northern Europe and the Pacific, where the partnership between Moscow and Beijing has increased the number of joint patrols between the two countries.
The powers regularly test themselves and check their rivals’ readiness and speed of response by sending aircraft into areas near enemy airspace, as occurs weekly between Chinese forces around Taiwan. This week, on the same day, the US tested Russian capabilities in the Black Sea with a drone and in the Baltic Sea with two B1B strategic bombers.