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The scary Russian military stunt that shocked the US

The aircraft swooped 9m away from the US destroyer. Photo: AAP

The aircraft swooped 9m away from the US destroyer. Photo: AAP

Dramatic footage has emerged of two Russian warplanes flying aggressively close to a United States navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea earlier this week.

On Thursday, the US Military released videos and photos showing the incident where two Russian Sukhoi SU-24 attack aircraft flew across the bow of the destroyer in the latest of many cases that the White House described as unsafe and unprofessional.

Experts told The New Daily that incidents like this had the potential to create “a serious standoff” and were reminiscent of a “re-emergent Cold War”.

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“In this situation the risk of an unprovoked incident can create a serious standoff,” Curtin University international security expert Dr Alexey Muraviev told The New Daily.

“The degree of caution the US would exercise here would be completely different to what we have seen of late because it is not a threat like Iraq or Serbia for example,” Dr Muraviev said.

“It is Russia, a power with similar capabilities than that of the US.”

Watch the startling footage below:

The US military said the “simulated attack” had the potential to escalate tensions between the two countries, and risked a deadly accident.

“This is more aggressive than anything we’ve seen in some time,” a US defence official said.

The repeated flights, which also happened near the ship a day earlier, were so close they created wake in the water, with 11 passes, the defence official said.

The planes carried no visible weaponry, the official said.

A Russian KA-27 Helix helicopter also passed the US vessel – the USS Donald Cook – seven times to take pictures.

The nearest Russian territory was about 70 nautical miles away in its enclave of Kaliningrad, which sits between Lithuania and Poland.

The warplanes and the helicopter passed on April 11 and April 12.

‘Lack of trust’ between Russia and US

An international studies expert told The New Daily the incident was a return to the Cold War days and showed emotions between the US and Russia were “running high”.

“With this situation there is going to be scope for both sides to misjudge very badly and allow emotions to run high,” University of Adelaide associate professor Felix Patrikeeff said.

us destroyer swooped

The aircraft swooped 9m away from the US destroyer. Photo: AAP

“Doubtless both sides’ troops are being drilled with the idea of a new emergent enemy and opposing force … there is a lack of trust between them.

“With that it becomes harder and harder to stop individual emotions and examples like this become really is risky.”

Assoc Prof Patrikeeff and Dr Muraviev agreed that Russia’s conduct was likely been motivated by the way the US had closely monitoring Russian territory.

“Russia knows what this type of destroyer is supposed to do,” Dr Muraviev said.

“They are part of the sea-based anti ballistic missile defence that the US is deploying around the world as a form of curtailing Russia’s strategic missile defence capability.

“The Russians fiercely oppose such a deployment so could partially explain why Russia are being so aggressive like this.”

– with ABC

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