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posted by janrinok on Tuesday June 02 2015, @03:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the my-dad-can-beat-your-dad dept.

BBC News reports:

Russian warplanes have made several close passes in recent days over a US destroyer sailing in the Black Sea, the Pentagon said. Russian state media reported that the USS Ross was acting "aggressively". The US Department of Defense, however, said the ship was "well within international waters at all times, performing routine operations". The US Navy released video on Monday of a Russian plane passing as close as 500 metres to the USS Ross.

A Pentagon spokesman went on to assert that the Russian Su-24 planes were not armed and that the USS Ross made no changes to it's course in response to the passes. Russian warplanes have been exercising pretty hard lately with airborne intercepts by NATO forces increasing dramatically over recent months. In a previous story, also from BBC News, defence correspondent Jonathan Beale stated that the Royal Air Force is intercepting Russian planes approaching UK airspace with their transponders disabled on a monthly basis. Although no rules have been broken regarding sovereignty of international airspace or territorial waters, tensions have obviously increased, as have submarine patrols and exercises by both Russia and NATO.


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:45AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:45AM (#191358) Journal

    So, which uniform did you wear? And, just how close to a nuclear weapon did you sleep at night? No, you can't claim to be a veteran, unless you manned a battle station somewhere, whether it be in a missile silo in Kansas, or the Alaskan/Siberian tundra, at sea, SOMEWHERE that weapons were ready for use. Otherwise, you were just a civilian, and a victim of all the terror.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:50PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @03:50PM (#191637)

    ... No, you can't claim to be a veteran, unless you manned a battle station somewhere...

    Since the term 'veteran' is often used colloquially to refer to participation in something non military, often humorously implying it was arduous, yes someone can use the term without being on the pointing end of the military stick. E.g., I'm a veteran of the metro, or the whatever University, slashdot, etc...

    I'd also point out that the cold war was in large part about the threat of nuclear weapons and the destruction of Human civilization throughout the Northern Hemisphere and general devastation across the Southern. in that sense, anyone alive on the planet at the time was on the pointy end of the stick. E.g., bomb drills in class rooms were everyone hides *safely* under their desk.