Operating in pairs, the Russian fighters made a mock attack on the carrier and took detailed photographs of the reaction on the carrier’s deck, Russian press reports said.
The incidents allegedly mimicked similar mock attacks that often took place during the Cold War, the London Telegraph reported.
"If these had been planes on a war mission, the aircraft carrier would definitely have been sunk," Izvestiya commented.
The carrier failed to scramble an F/A-18 fighter to intercept the intruders, the Interfax agency said, until a second pair of Su-24 and Su-27 planes swooped down on the Kitty Hawk on Oct. 17.
Former Navy pilots questioned the claims. "I think this story is wrong," said one.
"If I'm not mistaken, if the Russians had tried this during the Cold War, the E-2s would have picked them up far, far away and the boys (and I do mean boys) in the Tomcats would have greeted them well away from the [carrier]."
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