A Chinese fighter jet came within 10 feet of an American B-52 bomber flying over the South China Sea, nearly causing an accident, the U.S. military said, underscoring the potential for a mishap as both countries vie for influence in the region.
In the night intercept, the Shenyang J-11 twin-engine fighter closed on the U.S. Air Force plane at an “uncontrolled excessive speed, flying below, in front of, and within 10 feet of the B-52, putting both aircraft in danger of a collision,” the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement released late Thursday.
“We are concerned this pilot was unaware of how close he came to causing a collision,” the military said.
Shoot them down.
Ah, because if there’s something the World needs right now is more useless wars.
Thankfully you aren’t in charge of diplomacy and started WWIII because a plane got close to another. But nice armchair “analysis” there.
This made you very upset. Have you heard of salami slicing? Let me just take a little inch over here.
Self own there. How would a simple jet fight create WWIII? It’s unlikely. Dick move, but unlikely to tip anything more off than a tit for tat that that festers along.
Sure, it could be on if China wasn’t so grossly inadequate, but they’re not actually professing that much military capability at this point.
Good point. How does killing one person lead to a world war? A Duke would like to offer input.
Thought the same thing, but that time was an absolute powderkeg of ballistic egos.
Right, cause that’s not the case with the current geopolitical situation or anything. Except with nukes.
There has to be an amount of disbelief with the proficiency of rocket propelled delivery at this point. Laser weaponry and current defence solutions would have to give you pause in believing you could mount a nuclear war against the US without becoming the nuclear wasteland yourself. And it requires the unnerving belief allies will equally join the attempt and have proficient weaponry.
China’s going to look at the odds and think fuck that IMO.
People aren’t all that different than they were 100 years ago. You think modern leaders aren’t ego drunk?
Don’t dare say Winnie the Pooh in China, friend.
This kind of shit happens all the time with patrol aircraft and bombers, we fly next to their waters, they intercept and make sure we aren’t doing anything sketchy, then we move on.
It’s the biggest game of “I’m not touching you” in the world and it’s something that happens regularly. If we shot down every MiG that intercepted us we’d be on WW:VII by now.