This is CBS Islander World.

I'm John Bachelorette with Gordon Chang at Gordon G. Chang, and we welcome Rick Fisher,

the International Assessment and Strategy Center, to help us interpret a report within hours.

US military said that a Chinese fighter jet flew aggressively close to a US reconnaissance

aircraft over the South China Sea.

The Chinese J-16 fighter pilot, quote, flew directly in front of the nose of the RC-135

and quote, which was conducting routine operations in an international airspace.

Rick, what is an RC-135?

What is a J-16?

And what do you make of this incident over the South China Sea?

Good evening, too.

Good evening, John.

Good evening, Gordon.

The RC-135 is the standard US Air Force long-range surveillance platform.

It is based on the old Boeing 707, but upgraded with four modern high-by-pass turbofan engines.

The RC-135 is usually stuffed with surveillance gear, either electronic intelligence, signals

intelligence.

We use them to monitor nuclear tests.

If they're flying in the South China Sea, they're most likely conducting electronic and

signals intelligence missions.

Now, the People's Liberation Army Air Force, J-16, is a flat-out copy of the old Russian

Sukhoi 30 tandem twin-seat fighter bomber.

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