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  • 2019-11-25 (xsd:date)
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  • from South Africa to Venezuela and Cuba (en)
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  • Since Nov. 8, Russian media, including top news agencies, have reported an alleged incident in the neutral skies over the Sea of Japan involving two U.S. F-35 Lightning II fighters and a Russian Tu-160 bomber.These reports trended on some of Russia’s top news agencies, including RIA Novosti, Sputnik.ru, and Lenta.ru, and the government newspapers Rossiskaya Gazeta and Trud, as well as two military websites -- Topwar.ru, the website of Voennoe Obozrenie (Military Review), and VVS.moscow, the website of Dalnyaya Aviatsia VVS RF (Long-Range Aviation of Russia’s Air Force).U.S. -- U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II fighter jets perform aerial maneuvers as part of a combat power exercise over Utah Test and Training Range, Utah, November 19, 2018According to the reports, on Nov.3, two U.S. fifth-generation F-35 Lightning II fighter jets attempted to intercept a Russian Tu-160 strategic bomber during a scheduled flight in the neutral skies over the Sea of Japan. The Russian pilot masterfully put his machine into afterburner mode and escaped its pursuers, leaving just a glimpse of the giant bomber on the Americans’ flight radars. This despite the fact that the 110-ton Russian Tu-160 is nearly three times heavier than the 13-ton U.S. F-35s. The Russian media reports also described the Tu-160 as an outdated veteran of the Soviet air force, while the fifth generation F-35 Lightening II is the most modern and highly praised U.S. fighter aircraft.The Russian media reports used strikingly similar language and appeared to be copy-pasted from a single source -- the Chinese news agency Sina.Yet, the Sina report cited Russia’s Sputnik state-owned media outlet, which in turn cited Sina as its source. Thus, it is impossible to determine the precise origins of the story. Whatever its origins, the story seems to be fake.The Russian media reports suggest that the U.S. fighters forced the Russian bomber to divert from its scheduled course. But there was no record of any such incident over the Sea of Japan on Nov. 3 in several aviation incident tracking databases, which include forced diversion-military" type incidents globally.The Russian media reports also compared the weights of the Tu-160 and F-35 at the time of the "incident (en)
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