A Russian surveillance aircraft flew above a US base in Syria for an “extended period of time” on Friday morning in what officials deemed an intelligence collecting mission, a senior defense official said.
The aircraft, an Antonov An-30, flew over the At-Tanf garrison, the official said, flying back and forth several times over the base and the surrounding area.
“They continue to undertake activities that are very concerning to us,” the official said.
No US assets were able to intercept Russia’s manned surveillance aircraft in time because of where US aircraft were positioned at the time. The official said that the US has daily flight patterns determined by how many fighters are available, and tankers to refuel the fighters, as well as activity in Syria and Iraq and where they’re needed.
These flight schedules are routinely changed so that military patterns are not predictable, the official said, so the Russians would not have known in advance about the lack of US military airspace coverage.
While the US and Russia often collect intelligence on one another, this incident was significant in that it was directly over a US base. The official said there was a “lot of protest over the deconfliction line” established with Russia in Syria, which Russia brushed off.
“You can never cover everywhere it is you want to cover all at once, so we intentionally pattern that activity a little bit differently every day so that we’re not predictable … This just happened to be one of the periods where we had a small gap in our coverage over Al-Tanf garrison, nothing that could respond rapidly enough to get in position and intercept,” the official said, adding that they did not believe Russia knew US aircraft would be unable to respond.
“They probably would not have any advanced awareness that would’ve led them to do…
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