Two Navy sources told the Times that the Russian planes flew directly over the carrier's conning tower Oct. 17 while the Kitty Hawk's crew underwent training in international waters near Russia.
A retired Navy captain, who flew jets over the Sea of Japan, said it should have taken the Kitty Hawk only 15 minutes to scramble aircraft in a strategic area bordered by North Korea, Russia and Japan. Instead, sources told the Times, it took almost three times as long.
"They didn't have the right alert status for where they were," the retired officer told the Times. "It should have been a lot shorter alert time."
Proud of their maneuver, the Russians e-mailed the Kitty Hawk pictures the planes took while passing over the ship and its warplanes, the Navy confirmed.
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