MOSCOW, April 23. /TASS/. US Navy F/A-18 fighter jets escorted two Russian Tu-142 anti-submarine warfare planes at some sections of a ten-hour flight over the Pacific Ocean, the press office of Russia’s Pacific Fleet reported on Friday.
On April 23, a pair of the Pacific Fleet’s long-range anti-submarine warfare aircraft performed a scheduled ten-hour flight over the Pacific, the press office said in a statement.
"At some sections of the flight, the Russian aircraft were escorted by the US Navy’s F-18 deck-based fighters," the statement says.
The Russian Tu-142 aircraft performed their flight "in strict compliance with the international rules of using the airspace," the press office stressed.
In the course of their flight, the crews of the Russian anti-submarine warfare aircraft covered a distance of about 8,000 km, the statement says.
"The pilots practiced the tasks of a flight over featureless terrain and cohesion of operations while piloting in the absence of radar control, as well as the issues of flight training in the distant maritime area," the press office said.