Armed Russian jets have flown over a U.S. base in Syria nearly every day in March, U.S. commander says

Armed Russian jets have flown over a U.S. military garrison in Syria nearly every day in March, violating a 4-year-old agreement between the U.S. and Russia and risking escalation, according to the U.S. general in charge of air operations in the region.

Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, combined forces air component commander for U.S. Central Command, told NBC News on Wednesday that the most recent Russian overflight of At Tanf Garrison (ATG) happened just a few hours earlier, and that Russian jets have violated the airspace roughly 25 times so far this month, compared to zero times in February and 14 in January.

“It is a substantial increase,” he said, explaining that at this rate they are “on track to be double what it has been in the past.”

“They’re regularly flying directly overhead of our units, and I’ve defined directly overhead, as within about a mile, no more than a mile offset one side or the other, while we’ve got forces right there on the ground at ATG,” said Grynkewich. “So it’s an uncomfortable situation.”

The Russian aircraft include Su-34 jets. Some aircraft carry air-to-air weapons and others carrying air-to-ground munitions; weapons include radar-guided and heat-seeking missiles and bombs.

This disclosure comes in the wake of an incident over the Black Sea last week in which two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew aggressively around a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone, dumping fuel on the drone and eventually colliding with it, forcing the U.S. to down the drone in the water.

Grynkewich said he does not think the Russians have any incentive to use weapons against the U.S. military in Syria. “But it just increases the risk of miscalculation, and given things like the MQ-9 incident in the Black Sea, it’s not the kind of behavior that I’d expect out of a professional Air Force.”

The U.S. military has used the established deconfliction phone line it shares with the Russians to protest the actions, but it has not changed Russian behavior. Instead, said Grynkewich, during the calls the Russians have told the U.S. they don’t recognize all the airspace over At Tanf (also known as Al Tanf) as U.S. airspace or that they are responding to coalition activity in the area.