In March 1986, the presence of the same two sophisticated U.S. ships in the same waters in March 1986 prompted a Soviet protest. Yesterday marked the first time since then that U.S. warships had gone within the Soviets' claimed 12-mile territorial waters in the Black Sea, Pentagon officials said.
Yesterday's incursion was ordered by the Pentagon's European commander with White House approval, defense officials said.
The U.S. ships "were proceeding continuously and expeditiously, and they engaged in no activity prejudicial to the security of the Soviet Union," according to Cmdr. Richard Schiff, a Navy legal adviser. "The Soviets were just making a point of some kind."
The United States claims a three-mile limit, and recognizes the right of the Soviet Union and other nations to claim a 12-mile buffer so long as those nations allow free navigation through the added nine miles.
"It's a way for us to essentially try to discourage expansive coastal state claims," Schiff said, referring to the Navy's policy of asserting its right to traverse territorial waters unannounced.
U.S. officials summoned Soviet representatives to the State and Defense Departments to protest the bumping incident.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said President Reagan was notified shortly after the encounter occurred.
Government officials said little would be made of the incident for fear of jeopardizing warming superpower relations. The Pentagon's decision to dispatch a Navy captain to brief reporters - instead of a top Navy officer or civilian official - indicated little desire to dwell on the incident.
The incident occurred about 11 a.m. local time southwest of the Crimean peninsula in the northern Black Sea, which is bordered on the north by the Soviet Union and reachable from the Mediterranean Sea via the Dardanelles, the Sea of Marmara and the Bosporus. The Soviet navy's Black Sea fleet is based at Sevastopol in the southern Crimea.
The Yorktown, an Aegis-class cruiser, and the Caron, a Spruance-class destroyer, entered the Black Sea on Wednesday and by early yesterday had steamed within 12 miles of the Soviet coast. The Soviets allow foreign warships to travel unannounced within the 12-mile limit in restricted lanes, with any travel outside those lanes requiring advance Soviet approval. The United States does not recognize those restrictions.
As the Caron passed 7.5 miles off the Soviet shore, and the Yorktown drew to 10.3 miles offshore, Soviet ships and Tupolev Tu-16 Badger bombers monitored the vessels' movements. The U.S. ships were headed nearly due east at the time, U.S. officials said.
"Soviet ships have orders to prevent violation of territorial waters," a nearby Krivak-class Soviet frigate radioed the U.S. ships, according to the Pentagon account. "I am authorized to strike your ship with one of ours."
Pentagon officials said the two U.S. ships, already flying flags indicating that they were "innocently passing" by the Soviet coast and not engaged in the flight or gunnery drills barred during such travel, responded briefly.
"I am engaged in innocent passage consistent with international law," the U.S. ships told the two shadowing Soviet vessels, according to the Pentagon.
But the Soviet Defense Ministry said the U.S. vessels did not respond. ''The U.S. ships did not react to warning signals of Soviet border guard ships and dangerously maneuvered in Soviet territorial waters," Moscow said in a statement, which did not refer to any contact between ships.
Capt. Gerrish C. Flynn, an aide to the chief of naval operations, told reporters that the two Soviet vessels then began bearing down on the U.S. ships. "What we would call a patrol boat approached the Caron first and attempted to shoulder him out of the way," Flynn said.
"A larger ship . . . approached Yorktown's port side and attempted the same operation to shoulder him out of the way - essentially to place himself between the Soviet land mass . . . and the ship," he said.
All four ships suffered minor damage, Pentagon officials said. ''Essentially, they were just grazed on the side," Flynn said, referring to the Caron and the Yorktown.
"There were no personnel casualties reported, and the ships continued on their way toward the east," Flynn said. "Both ships are operating routinely in the Black Sea as planned."
The ships were within 12 miles of the Soviet coast for about 75 minutes, he said.
Both U.S. ships were much larger than the Soviet vessels that hit them. A 1,100-ton Mirka-class light frigate struck the 7,800-ton Caron, commanded by Cmdr. Louis F. Harlow, and a 3,900-ton Krivak-class frigate hit the 9,600-ton Yorktown, commanded by Capt. Philip A. Dur, according to the Pentagon account. Both ships are stationed at Norfolk, Va., and left the United States on Sept. 29.
Pentagon officials declined to say whether any other U.S ships were in the Black Sea at the time of the incident, or whether the two vessels were engaged in any sort of intelligence-gathering activity that might have provoked the Soviets. Small Soviet intelligence-gathering vessels routinely operate within five miles of the United States.
In 1986, the Soviets protested the presence of the Yorktown and the Caron in the Black Sea as a "defiant" act with "clearly provocative aims." The Yorktown belongs to what is regarded as the world's most sophisticated warship class, Aegis cruisers, capable of monitoring numerous military missions simultaneously.
