The shut encounter between the U.S. B-52 and the PLA J-11 happened in worldwide airspace over the South China Sea.

On Oct. 24, 2023, a Chinese language J-11 intercepted a U.S. Air Power B-52 Stratofortress bomber flying an evening time mission in worldwide airspace over the South China Sea. Based on the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, the Chinese language pilot “flew in an unsafe and unprofessional method, demonstrated poor airmanship by closing with uncontrolled extreme pace, flying beneath, in entrance of, and inside 10 ft of the B-52, placing each plane at risk of collision”.

“We’re involved this pilot was unaware of how shut he got here to inflicting a collision,” a public assertion says.

“The PRC intercept was carried out at evening, with restricted visibility, in a fashion opposite to worldwide air security guidelines and norms. Navy plane, when deliberately approaching one other, shall function with skilled airmanship and provides due regard for the security of different plane.”

The incident is simply the newest of an extended collection of shut encounters (180 for the reason that fall of 2021) between U.S. and Chinese language plane that the Division of Protection described as “unsafe” and “unprofessional”: as now we have reported intimately in a recent post, the Pentagon on Oct. 17, 2023, launched a set of declassified photos and movies depicting “a harmful sample of coercive and dangerous operational habits by the Individuals’s Liberation Military (PLA) in opposition to U.S. plane”, though only a few of these clips actually present essentially the most harmful and aggressive maneuvers carried out by the Chinese language pilots throughout the interception of U.S. spyplanes (primarily P-8, EP-3E and RC-135 plane).

Coping with the latest interplay, the DoD has launched a brief clip shot by the B-52’s SNIPER Superior Focusing on Pod (should you can’t play the embedded video beneath, click on here).

B-52 Stratofortresses and airmen with the 2nd Bomb Wing are at present deployed to Andersen AFB, Guam, for a BTF (Bomber Job Power) rotation. The BUFFs perform routine missions to the South China Sea (in flights of two bombers).

24 OCT: USAF B-52Hs SAUCY11 & 12 from Andersen AFB, Guam carried out a Bomber Job Power mission over the South China Sea.

— Plane Spots (@AircraftSpots) October 25, 2023

USAF B-52Hs DIVA11 & 12 departed Andersen AFB, Guam for a Bomber Job Power mission over the South China Sea. pic.twitter.com/T28hP8xd65

— Plane Spots (@AircraftSpots) October 26, 2023

David Cenciotti is a journalist based mostly in Rome, Italy. He’s the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of many world’s most well-known and skim navy aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for main worldwide magazines, together with Air Forces Month-to-month, Fight Plane, and plenty of others, overlaying aviation, protection, conflict, business, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown a number of fight planes with completely different air forces. He’s a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Power, a non-public pilot and a graduate in Laptop Engineering. He has written 5 books and contributed to many extra ones.