Since the aborted June coup attempt in Russia by now-assassinated Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, the United States and the United Kingdom have been escalating their aerial surveillance of Russian, Belorussian and Wagner Group forces in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia. Their activity is necessary because other NATO member states either lack the capability or, as in France and Germany's case, the cost-willingness to support this intelligence effort.
In October, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace described the close call in a briefing to Parliament members as “potentially dangerous” after the Russian fighter jet “released a missile in the vicinity” of the British aircraft.