A Russian fighter jet fired a missile at a manned RAF reconnaissance plane over the Black Sea last year – but the bomb malfunctioned saving the British lives on board, US defence officials and leaked Pentagon intelligence documents revealed today.
The Russian pilot mistakenly believed a radar operator on the ground gave him permission to fire – but the missile sent to take down the British aircraft failed to launch properly and missed.
On September 29, an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft was flying through international airspace close to the Russian-occupied Crimea peninsula when it was buzzed by a squadron of Moscow’s Su-27 fighters.
At the time, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace acknowledged the incident, telling Parliament that the Russian jets ‘recklessly’ came within 15ft of the RAF plane and one ‘released a missile in the vicinity’.
But two US defence officials commenting on top secret intelligence documents leaked online told the New York Times the incident was far more serious than first thought and could have dragged Britain into direct conflict with the Russians.
A Russian Su-27 jet shadowing an RAF RC-135 spy plane over the Black Sea in September came close to shooting the British aircraft down but its missile malfunctioned
The Russian mistakenly believed a radar operator on the ground gave him permission to fire on the RAF
The details emerged in a cache of leaked highly classified documents showing British and United States military activities since the invasion of Ukraine.
The source of the deeply embarrassing leak remained a mystery yesterday as US intelligence chiefs launched a criminal investigation to find who was responsible.
Though more limited in scale, the release of documentation of such a high classification is the most alarming incident of its kind since the WikiLeaks scandal of 2013 when 700,000 documents, videos and audio files were leaked.
Dozens of highly sensitive documents were crudely photographed and shared online. Yesterday, UK defence officials were in dialogue with their US counterparts as the leaks included incidents involving British forces.
The documents also cover the conflict in Ukraine, including discussions about death tolls on both sides and remaining ammunition stocks – a sensitive issue ahead of much anticipated spring offences by Russian and Ukrainian troops.
Though the papers have not been independently verified, most intelligence sources consider them to be genuine – although they are said to contain inaccuracies.
The documents include an account of an incident last year when a UK intelligence gathering aircraft was harassed by a pair of Russian fighter jets over the Black Sea.
At the time UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace told parliament a malfunction had caused a Russian jet to release a missile ‘in the vicinity’ of the British ‘Rivet Joint’ aircraft.
The documents paint a darker picture of the incident in September 2022, suggesting the Russian missile nearly hit the RAF plane. The intelligence paper describes a ‘near shoot-down of a UK RJ’.
An RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint spy plane had been flying over international waters near Crimea at the time of the incident in September
Following the leak, UK defence sources insisted Mr Wallace’s account was accurate and the safety of the aircraft and crew was not jeopardised.
UK policy towards combating China is also discussed in the documents, which are remarkably wide-ranging in their scope of subjects.
The Kremlin has declined to admit responsibility for the leak. A spokesman for Vladimir Putin suggested there was a general tendency to blame Russia for everything in such circumstances.
UK intelligence expert Hamish de Bretton-Gordon was also keeping an open mind. He said: ‘The loss of these documents is more deeply embarrassing for the Pentagon than anything and should not adversely affect any Ukrainian battle plans.
‘It may cause confusion among Russian military planners who will be wondering if they are real or another clever ruse of war. It may even be a plant by the Russian government to cause discord between the allies and Ukraine. One must keep an open mind. I would not take them at face value.’
Some of the documents have been online for months although only in recent days has their presence on obscure internet servers garnered attention.
The leak is so concerning that the US Defence Department has referred it to the Department of Justice which has opened a criminal investigation. An early assessment has indicated the papers would have been available to thousands of defence and intelligence officials – one or more of whom seemingly posted them online.
Since the leak first came to light in March, the investigators have been pursuing theories ranging from someone simply sharing the documents to show off the work they were doing to a mole inside the US intelligence community or military.
Daniel Hoffman, a former senior CIA undercover officer, said that given past activities of Moscow’s intelligence agencies, it was ‘highly likely’ that Russian operatives posted documents related to Ukraine as part of a Russian disinformation operation.
He said such operations – meant to sow confusion and discord among Russia’s adversaries – were a ‘classic’ practice of Russian spy services to leak authentic documents in which they have inserted false information. The aim, he said, was to drive a wedge between Ukraine and the US, Kyiv’s largest provider of military support.
Some national security experts and US officials say they suspect the leaker could be a US citizen. The White House has declined to discuss publicly who might be responsible for the breach.
