Russian MiG Intercepted U.S. Bomber Jet over Sea of Japan

Oct. 17, 2021 (EIRNS)—In the wake of last week’s provocative incident by the U.S. Navy in the Sea of Japan, an air incident has been reported today by TASS,  in which “Russian airspace control system detected an aerial target over the neutral waters of the Sea of Japan approaching the state border.”

The Russian Mikoyan MiG-31 was scrambled to intercept the intruder, which was identified as the U.S. B-1B Lancer bomber. It was escorted over the Sea of Japan, and the National Defense Management Center in Moscow confirmed that no violations of the Russian state border were allowed.

Where this particular bomber was based and what it was doing over the Sea of Japan is unknown; there have been recent exercises between B-1B bombers and Japanese fighter jets some time ago, and sometimes the bombers are based in Guam. Most of the time, they’re based in the continental U.S.

There was a prior such incident on Sept. 29, in which three Russian fighters intercepted a U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bomber, over the Sea of Okhotsk, near the island of Iturup, which the Japanese call Etorofu. Russian authorities said that the U.S. bomber had “approached Russia’s airspace.”

The USAF website describes the B-1B Lancer bomber as “Carrying the largest conventional payload of both guided and unguided weapons in the Air Force inventory, the multi-mission B-1 is the backbone of America’s long-range bomber force. It can rapidly deliver massive quantities of precision and non-precision weapons against any adversary, anywhere in the world, at any time.”