The intercept news just keeps coming. This time the encounter happened about 135 miles east of Hainan Island, and involved the Navy's new and a pair of Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force Su-27 Flankers.

The Chinese fighters intercepted the defenseless P-8 and flew formation off its wings at some distance brandishing their weapons via tilting their wings up. The fighters then moved in to distances that were alarming.

stated that the Chinese Flankers came within 20-30 feet of the P-8. Considering the wingspan of the Su-27 is 48 feet, that is very close for uncoordinated formation flying. They encroached to this distance at least three times during the intercept.

What happened next was an outright omission of safety as one of the Su-27s executed a barrel roll over P-8, followed by a 90 degree break across the modified Boeing's 737's nose. Similar aggressive flying by PLAAF pilots resulted in an

Accordingly to Admiral Kirby, the intercept was "very, very close, very dangerous."

Such an aggressive intercept occurring well outside of Chinese airspace against a US military aircraft will certainly chill military relations between the two powers. This is far less than ideal considering the US has worked hard to strengthen positive relations between the two countries' militaries, having recently for the very first time.

Exercise Rim Of The Pacific, commonly known as RIMPAC, is the largest multinational naval training…

This event adds to the slew of intense intercepts that have occurred region,

It is really amazing how much tensions have increased among major powers over the last year, and…

The Pentagon has filed a formal protest with the Chinese Embassy.