"I am very concerned with occasions when they are not showing themselves as the professional air force I have seen over the years, and you have seen the examples of that: low passes over our ships, aggressive acts over our aircraft," Goldfein stated. "My message to my counterpart is: I have seen the Russian air force in action. It is a professional force and they are far better than that."
US defense officials recently raised concerns about what they called "unsafe" and "unprofessional" Russian maneuvers in the Baltic Sea.
In April, two Russian Su-24 fighters came within 30 feet of the US Navy missile destroyer Donald Cook in order to identify the ship.
US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter said in April that the US military expects Russian senior leaders to discourage the country’s military pilots from conducting dangerous flyovers of American ships because such acts can lead to a confrontation.
