On the 10th of April 2014, the USS Donald Cook – a state of the art missile destroyer – entered the waters of the Black Sea.

Two days later, on the 12th, Russia did something to the US missile destroyer which demoralised the crew so much, that many of the US sailors reportedly requested to be relieved from active service.

The USS Donald Cook is a 4th generation guided missile destroyer whose key weapons are Tomahawk cruise missiles with a range of up to 2,500 kilometers, and is capable of carrying nuclear explosives. This ship carries 56 Tomahawk missiles in standard mode, and 96 missiles in attack mode.

The US destroyer was equipped with the state of the art Aegis Combat System.

It is an integrated naval weapons systems which can link together the missile defense systems of all vessels embedded within the same network to ensure the detection, tracking and destruction of hundreds of targets at the same time. In addition, the USS Donald Cook is equipped with 4 large radars, whose power is comparable to that of several stations. For protection, it carries more than fifty anti-aircraft missiles of various types.

On the 12th of April, a Russian Su-24 warplane buzzed the USS Donald Cook. It was carrying neither bombs nor missiles but only a basket mounted under the fuselage, which, according to the Russian newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, contained a Russian electronic warfare device called Khibiny.

As the Russian jet approached the US vessel, the electronic device disabled all radars, control circuits, systems, information transmission, etc. on board the US destroyer. The all-powerful US Aegis system, (which is now hooked up on NATO’s most modern ships) was completely shut down, in the same way that a remote control turns off a TV set.

The Russian Su-24 then simulated a missile attack against the USS Donald Cook, which was left literally deaf and blind. As if carrying out a training exercise, the Russian aircraft – unarmed – repeated the same maneuver 12 times before flying away.

After that, the 4th generation destroyer immediately set sail towards a port in Romania.

Since that incident, no US ship has ever approached Russian territorial waters again.

According to some specialized media, 27 sailors from the USS Donald Cook requested to be relieved from active service.

So effective is the Russian military in electronic warfare, that the US commander of army units in Europe, has described Russian EW capabilities in Ukraine as “eye-watering.”

Article origionally published by Volitarenet.org