In February of 1988, the United States was conducting freedom of
navigation missions to assert its right to innocent passage through the Black Sea
when they got intercepted by Soviet resistance.
American cruiser USS Yorktown and destroyer USS Caron had been instructed to deliberately cross
the Soviet territorial waters in Crimea, an action that the Soviets found confrontational.
Without delay, Soviet frigates Bezzavetnyy and SKR-6 were deployed to intercept the
trespassers and demand that they turn around,
as the coastal nation only recognized the passage of warships in designated sea lanes.
However, the Americans believed there was no legal basis for this
and defended their international right to transit the area.
It was then that the annoyed Soviets decided to take action, and it was all caught on camera...
Tensions Rise
The United States and the Soviet Union continually clashed during the years of the Cold War,
and their passive-aggressive diplomacy had the entire world hanging by a thread.
During the conflict, the US government considered that some countries asserted
jurisdictional boundaries beyond traditional claims and wanted to change that.
Given that diplomatic approaches had proven ineffective, the US started an
informal program in 1979 to promote the: (QUOTE) "rights and freedoms of
navigation and overflight guaranteed to all nations under international law."
Furthermore, if nations avoided operations at sea and in the air in disputed areas,
it was possible that a new customary international law could emerge, and the US didn’t like the idea.
In the 1980s, American warships crossed the Black Sea through the straits connecting from
the Mediterranean. Twice or thrice a year, the ships would claim the
right of innocent passage in coastal states by: (QUOTE) “Showing the flag.”
Beyond asserting their right to free passage, US naval activity in the Black
Sea served another purpose. The 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits
determined that the straits in the region, the Dardanelles and the Bosporus,
were indeed an international waterway, and as a US government official said that: (QUOTE)
"If you don't periodically reaffirm your rights you find that they're hard to revive."
However, Soviet legislation differed significantly from international agreements.
In ‘The Rules of Navigation and Sojourn of Foreign Warships in the Territorial Waters and Internal
Waters and Ports of the USSR,’ the Soviet Council of Ministers defined the specifics of the right of
innocent passage. The 1983 act acknowledged this right for foreign warships in restricted Soviet
territorial waters, including the Baltic, the Sea of Okhotsk, and the Sea of Japan.
Incidentally, the Black Sea did not have any designated sea lanes for innocent passage,
and American warships were under constant surveillance from Soviet vessels and aircraft.
Moreover, the Soviet Union considered the US presence in the Black Sea a deliberate disregard
of its policies and an attempt to undermine improving relations between Washington and Moscow.
When diplomatic exchanges weren’t enough, the Americans deemed it necessary to conduct
a freedom of navigation program, which only increased the tension between the
two superpowers and resulted in the famous Black Sea bumping incident of February 1988.
However, that was not the first time that USS Yorktown and USS Caron
found themselves in trouble with their Soviet counterparts.
Two Years Before
On March 10, 1986, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Yorktown and the Spruance-class
destroyer USS Caron entered the Turkish Straits and crossed
into the Black Sea. The Krivak-class frigate Ladny followed them closely.
Three days later, Yorktown and Caron trespassed the Soviet boundaries.
While innocent passage is defined as transiting a nation’s territorial waters
without conducting military activities, the US ships entered Soviet territorial
waters with their main armament pointed at the Soviet coastline.
For over two hours, the vessels sailed along the Crimean Peninsula within six miles of the coast,
even facing the Dozorny and Izmail border guard ships, and Captain Zhuravlev,
the commander of Ladny, reported the event to his superiors.
Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy Vladimir Chernavin was reportedly
aware that the order for the American warships to cross the Soviet border
came from Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger with the consent of President Ronald Reagan.
After the incident, two press conferences took place.
US charge d’affaires Richard Combs was summoned to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
where he received the Soviet protest. The nation claimed
that such a flagrant violation of their territorial waters: (QUOTE)
"was of a demonstrative, defiant nature and pursued clearly provocative aims."
Furthermore, Chernavin stated that: (QUOTE) "The innocent passage of foreign warships
through the territorial waters of the USSR is permitted only in specially
authorized coastal areas which have been announced by the Soviet government
[and] there are no such areas in the Black Sea off the coast of the Soviet Union."
The United States’ official reply was: (QUOTE) "The transit of the USS Yorktown and USS Caron
through the claimed Soviet territorial sea on March 13, 1986,
was a proper exercise of the right of innocent passage, which international law,
both customary and conventional, has long accorded ships of all states."
An article reporting on the incident in the American Journal of International Law argued
that the course of the warships was lateral, as proven by a map published in a Russian newspaper.
It shows no indication of expressly infringing the internal waters or ports of the Soviet Union.
Additionally, the American embassy in the USSR received instructions that the US:
(QUOTE) "Would not want to lend any validity to a Soviet position that their domestic
law was at all relevant in determining U.S. navigational rights under international law."
The Incident
In February of 1988, Yorktown and Caron embarked on another freedom
of navigation mission south of Crimea. As stated by the United Nations Conventions,
warships could leave sea lanes in innocent passage, but the Soviet Union still disagreed.
Soviet naval vessels would routinely shadow American ships in the region.
But the incident on February 12 with Yorktown and Caron was different.
The Soviets believed that the two American warships in their territorial waters
were armed with more firepower than allowed by previous treaties.
Furthermore, they thought they had the authority to clear unwelcomed ships in their territory.
As the New York Times reported at the time, the US ships: (QUOTE) "Entered the 12-mile limit claimed
by the Soviet Union as part of a Navy policy of occasionally asserting the right of passage in
waters exceeding the 3-mile territorial limit recognized by the United States."
Footage taken that day onboard the US warships shows how Soviet
frigates intercepted the Americans, which had considerably larger ships.
Bezzavetnyy warned Yorktown that she would strike her if they didn’t leave.
Meanwhile, SKR-6 confronted Caron, which ignored the threat and responded: (QUOTE)
“I am engaged in innocent passage consistent with international law.”
At roughly 10:00am, SKR-6 rammed into Caron’s portside aft,
scraping the paint on the American ship’s hull.
Meanwhile, Bezzavetnyy was tracking Yorktown, and as she closed in to about 50 feet, she slammed
into her port side. The collision caused minor damage to Yorktown’s hull, but two of her Harpoon
missile launchers were rendered unusable. As for the frigate, her starboard anchor was torn apart.
The captain of the Bezzavatnyy later recalled: (QUOTE) “Many members of the crew of Yorktown were
on the upper deck, smiling and waving, taking pictures of us with cameras and video cameras
[...] In a word, the Americans behaved as if they were participating in a show for entertainment.”
The Americans then carried on with their mission,
continuing their transit and not leaving Soviet waters until noon.
Aftermath
News of the incident quickly spread within the Navy,
and Admiral James Foggo would later say that it was: (QUOTE) "somewhat of a seminal event."
Jerry Hendrix, a retired Navy Captain, explained that even
though there was an inherent danger to the physical contact between the ships,
the maneuver was, in fact, a display of high-degree professionalism.
Per the international agreements, it was required that ships transiting in
innocent passage maintain course and speed. But Hendrix clarified that it was the Soviet’s duty:
(QUOTE) "To make contact with the Americans in the safest manner possible, and then attempt to
use their own mass, their engines, and their rudders to move the American out of the way."
Ironically, the event prompted the two superpowers to reach common ground
and settle several pending agreements regarding potential disputes at sea.
Nevertheless, according to Hendrix, the US Navy grew less concerned about
another conflict of the sort during the following decades,
as their ships were superior in size to other navies which had shifted to smaller ships.
However, tensions have risen again in recent times with the growth of the Russian and Chinese navies,
increasing the risk of another disagreement. But as then-Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci stated:
(QUOTE) “If we start backing off we will eventually lose some of the rights
that are absolutely essential for our freedom of navigation.”
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