>Так или иначе, Пентагон, очевидно, для поднятия престижа, заявил, что разведывательные полеты в международных водах возле острова Хайнань возобновятся.
>
Maло того, они и нe прeкрaщaлись:
WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI)
...
This source added that last week, at the height of the tense, high-stakes
standoff between China and the United States over the April 1 collision
between an EP-3E Navy spy plane and an F-8 Chinese fighter, the U.S.
Department of Defense had sent another electronic intelligence plane on a
mission along the China coast.
According to John Pike, weapons expert for GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandra, Va.-based think tank, the spy plane was not "definitely not an (Navy) Aries (EP-3E)," but either an Air Force Rivet Joint flight (EP-135) or Navy P-3 Orion anti-submarine aircraft.
... Pike said U.S. intelligence officials had told him that an (another) Aires flight was due to be sent soon.
...
U.S. intelligence officials told United Press International that a multi-billion dollar U.S. intelligence operation is flying the same number
of intelligence-gathering planes as were flown "at the height of the Cold War,"...
A chartered Continental Airlines Boeing 737 carrying the 24 crew members of a U.S. spy plane takes off from Haikou International Airport early Thursday.
