British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace testified before the Parliament today. While he had just returned from an unscheduled visit to Washington, the only information released about his testimony was a report of an incident last month, in which a Russian aircraft allegedly “released a missile” near an unarmed Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft on routine patrol over the Black Sea. He said the RAF Rivet Joint aircraft had been shadowed by two Russian armed SU-27 jets on Sept. 29. Wallace said the event was a “potentially dangerous engagement,” but not a “deliberate escalation.” He said it is not unusual for planes to shadow one another. The issue was that “one of the SU-27 aircraft released a missile in the vicinity of the RAF Rivet Joint beyond visual range.” Nonetheless the patrol was completed and the RAF aircraft returned to its base.
Wallace said he then communicated his concerns directly to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. An investigation by Russian authorities determined the incident to have been a “technical malfunction,” which Wallace accepted.
