Armed Russian jets have flown over a U.S. military garrison in Syria nearly every day in March, posing a violation to a four-year-old agreement between America and Russia and furthering escalation fears over the situation. According to Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, who doubles as the combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command, the Russian aircrafts have over flown the airspace of At Tanf Garrison (ATG) more recently and as many as 25 times this month as compared to February’s zero times and 14 in January. This ‘substantial increase’ puts the rate on track to double the overflights of this area.
The aircrafts include the Su-34 jets, some of which are weaponized with radar-guided and heat-seeking missiles and bombs. This activity in the highly sensitive region follows an incident over the Black Sea last week when two Russian jets flew provocatively around an MQ-9 Reaper drone and eventually collided with it, forcing the U.S. to crash the drone into the water.
Lt. Gen. Grynkewich, however, does not think that the Russians have malice intent behind these overflights. While the Americans opted to call the Russians to protest this action through an established deconfliction phone line, the parties were unable to reach a consensus as the Russians kept on repeating that they do not recognize all of the airspace over ATG as U.S. airspace or that it was due to coalition activity in the area.
The U.S. and Russia had supposedly established protocols of the air in 2019 to avoid accidental and potential confrontations with each other but the Russians have now disregarded this understanding. This escalation in atmosphere has not yet affected the military operations of the U.S. on the ground, but if need whether in-case of emergency or otherwise be, Grynkewich fears that it could disrupt the mission significantly.
The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., however, hasn’t clearly spoken up about their stance on the matter.
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The article also mentions Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, a high-ranking U.S. military officer. Grynkewich is the commander of combined forces air component for U.S. Central Command and has been a part of the U.S. military for over two decades. During his career, he has logged thousands of hours of flight time and previously held important posts such as the director and directorate of current operations at U.S. Air Forces Central Command.
