‘What the hell is going on?’: Cold War returns to Black Sea, recalling shock 1988 confrontation
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Russia appears intent on proving it’s still a military superpower. This includes not just its incursion into Ukraine, but also regular shadowboxing with Western navies and air forces — including a recent incident in the Black Sea in which Russian fighter jets zoomed close to a U.S. destroyer.
“Washington has grown to accept Russia’s newly aggressive military posture as the new norm,” Politco wrote this week.
It’s still not like old times, though. In its report on the Russian muscle-flexing, Politico mentions the time in February 1988 when Soviet frigates purposefully banged into two U.S. warships in international waters in the Black Sea. “The Russian ship’s anchor raked a gash down the side of the American warship, causing millions of dollars in damage and a spike in international tensions,” the politics site wrote of the more dramatic of the two “bumpings.”
What exactly happened in that Cold War confrontation three years before the Soviet Union broke up? You can see for yourself, thanks to a seaman on the USS Yorktown who had a video camera on him.
“Coming in again!” a sailor yells as the Soviet frigate suddenly veers into the Yorktown.
The American crew clearly didn’t expect the Soviet vessel to throw itself at the much larger American ship.
“What the hell is going on?” someone yells after the impact. “What the hell!”
“He’s got it on video!” calls out another sailor, as if he has foreseen the invention of YouTube in a couple of decades. (Watch the video below.)
Turns out the American ships, the Yorktown and the destroyer Caron, had been warned. ”Soviet ships have orders to prevent violation of territorial waters,” a Soviet captain radioed one of the American vessels. “I am authorized to strike your ship with one of ours.”
When the American ships did not reply, the smaller Soviet vessels “shouldered out of the way” the American warships. After the fender-benders, the Yorktown and Caron stayed on course and didn’t leave the waters claimed by the Soviets for two hours.
The U.S. Navy knew the incident could have turned out much worse, considering how sensitive the Soviets were about their territorial integrity. Just five years earlier, a Soviet fighter jet had shot down a Korean commercial airline after it entered Soviet airspace, killing 269 passengers and crew.
And the Americans weren’t entirely innocent in this Black Sea showdown. Sure, they were making a point of their right to traverse the waters about seven miles off the Crimean coast — international waters but within an area claimed by the Soviet Union as part of its national territory. But they were also doing a little spying on the side.
“Officials who spoke anonymously after a Pentagon news briefing said another purpose was to collect intelligence on Soviet defenses,” the New York Times wrote on February 13, 1988. Added the newspaper: “A Soviet naval base is in the area of today’s encounter.”
Officially, the U.S. didn’t mention the spying. “We intend to continue exercising our rights under international law,” a State Department spokesman said. “The Soviets are obliged to comply with their international commitments.”
More than 25 years later, the new Cold War isn’t nearly as chilly as the old one, but the military posturing retains a familiar flavor. Pointed out retired Vice Admiral Doug Crowder about the recent Russian flyover of U.S. ships in the Black Sea: “They’re making sure that we know that they’re watching us.”
— Douglas Perry
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