The Russian Su-24 bomber in the Black Sea, which on January 31 flew over the American Arleigh Burke-class destroyer Donald Cook for the third time in seven years, is becoming obsolete, Popular Mechanics writes.
American magazine reminds that the Su-24 was built during the Cold War. “The plane from the 1980s is old enough that the closest US military equivalent, the F-111 Aardvark, is no longer in use,” the newspaper writes.
The magazine notes that previously the Su-24 accompanied Donald Cook in 2014 and 2017. “A Su-24 armed with anti-ship missiles can cause significant damage to a destroyer like Donald Cook, which nevertheless has its own defense systems that not only shoot down oncoming missiles, but also make it difficult to hit the target,” the publication says. p>
In February, The Drive wrote that the US Navy, speaking of the Russian threat in the Black Sea, actually means Moscow’s ability to quickly turn almost the entire area into a zone of destruction with its anti-ship missiles.
Donald Cook entered the Black Sea on January 23rd. Destroyer Porter of the same type – 28th. After their call, the Russian Armed Forces held exercises in the Black Sea. Later, a Russian Su-24 bomber flew next to Donald Cook.
In November 2020, the US Navy’s Arleigh Burke-class destroyer John Finn successfully shot down a simulator of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nuclear warhead over the Pacific with the RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) Block IIA anti-missile missile.