With President Biden just entering into office, the Russians seem anxious to give him the lay of the land. Using Electonic jamming and fly-by scare tactics, this is probably the first (electronic) firing shot of superpower arm-wrestling to define new ground rules for eastern Europe status-quo.
On January 21st, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa participated in a Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) event with assets from U.S. Special Operations Command Europe, U.S Naval Forces Europe/U.S. 6th Fleet, U.S. Army Europe and Africa, U.S. Strategic Command, and the Romanian Air Force, in international waters and airspace in and around the Black Sea. The exercise was designed to train U.S. and ally forces to integrate, operate and communicate while executing all-domain targeting operations. Romanian Air Force F-16 fighters flew alongside U.S. Air Force F-16s from the 31st Fighter Wing, Aviano Air Base, Italy, and KC-135 Stratotankers from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, RAF Mildenhall, England. Additional U.S. intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance aircraft also participated in the exercise.
“The first US destroyer USS Donald Cook entered the Black Sea on January 24 with the aim of “strengthening security in the region.” The Russians reacted sharply. They sent Su-30 fighter jets to the ship’s location and also began to simulate strikes on surface targets with the help of The Ball missile systems. The Russian Defense Ministry explained its actions as ‘military exercises’. A new aggravation occurred on Thursday, January 28, when another US Air Force destroyer ” Porter” appeared in the Black Sea. Russia urgently sent to the location of the American ships frigate of the Russian Navy “Admiral Makarov.” Military exercises were again cited as the reason,” the Ukrainian newspaper Dialog reports.
A Russian Su-24 Fencer combat jet flew low over the destroyer USS Donald Cook, while missile-toting Su-30SM Flanker multirole fighters and mobile coastal defense missile systems undertook high-profile drills, in the latest series of encounters between the U.S. Navy and the Russian military in the Black Sea. All this comes amid what is reportedly the largest U.S. Navy deployment to the region in years, involving two Arleigh Burke class destroyers — the USS Donald Cook (DDG-75) and the USS Porter (DDG-78) — as well as a replenishment tanker to support them.
Three addional U.S. warships appeared in the Black Sea, two of which were armed with cruise tactical missiles, an American Boeing E-3 Sentry military aircraft was sent to escort them, which had to transmit information about the air and sea environment and provide communications between three warships. Due to use of powerful Russian electronic suppression devices in the region that communication was lost for a period of time,” according to Russian media sources.
The Boeing E-3 Sentry is a “tool” for detecting long-range targets, however, US Navy warships are sufficient to detect naval and land targets within a radius of several hundred kilometers, it is clear that the ship’s radars did not work properly because when Russian planes carried out a fake attack on these ships, the crew was completely surprised.
Ukrainian media confirmed earlier reports that the Russian military had worked out the “electronic firing” on U.S. warships in the western Black Sea. According to the data presented, the Russian military used the Ball missile systems and, according to other information, the bastion long-range BRK, when it met the U.S. Navy at the entrance to the Black Sea.
As all parties are aware that they are defining a new status-quo the tensions are high. What changes this will bring about are still unclear.
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