It's a longstanding habit of the US to fly over Russian and Chinese territory or sail into their territorial waters on reconnaissance missions.

I have two friends who flew these missions, one as an interpreter and the other as the pilot. They would fly a specific path and record how the radars lit up and when the Russian or Chinese fighters scrambled would turn around and try to get back over international waters before they could be caught.

Depending upon where they were the interpreter would fly with them or be on an airplane standing off the coast.

I wonder what the US would do if a Chinese surveillance ship was within 10 miles of the US coast?

Arf