“The Russian fighter jet crew identified the air target as an RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft of the US Air Force and escorted it over the Black Sea.”

“A Su-27 fighter jet of the Southern Military District’s air defense units on duty was scrambled to identify the air target and to prevent it from violating the state border of the Russian Federation,”

No violation of the state border of the Russian Federation was allowed, the Russian National Defense Control Center said.

After the U.S. aircraft turned away from the Russian border, the Russian fighter jet returned to the home airbase.

The Boeing RC-135 is a family of large reconnaissance aircraft built by Boeing and modified by a number of companies, including General Dynamics, Lockheed, LTV, E-Systems, and L3 Technologies, and used by the United States Air Force and Royal Air Force to support theater and national level intelligence consumers with near real-time on-scene collection, analysis and dissemination capabilities.

Many variants have been modified numerous times, resulting in a large variety of designations, configurations, and program names.