Chinese fighter jets on Tuesday again conducted an unsafe intercept of a US reconnaissance plane, US Pacific Command said. An Air Force RC-135 was intercepted by two Chinese J-10 fighter jets in international airspace over the East China Sea, PACOM said in a statement. The jets flew with “an unsafe excessive rate of closure” on the Rivet Joint, PACOM said. The Pentagon is addressing the issue “in appropriate diplomatic and military channels.” China’s Defense Ministry, in a statement to Reuters, said the US is “deliberately hyping up the issue of the close surveillance of China by US military aircraft.” Air Force and Navy jets have repeatedly encountered unsafe intercepts in the region as tensions have increased over the South China Sea.
The successful second flight of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on Nov. 13 from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., also included a first for the company—the launcher’s booster stuck its landing on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean.
