The Pentagon accused Russia of carrying out an unsafe intercept of the reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace over the Baltic Sea earlier this week.
But the photographs released by the US European Command on Friday showed just how close the fighter jet came to the US aircraft.
NATO aircraft are being deployed as part of the organisation's annual Baltic Operations (BALTOPS), a multinational, maritime-focused live training event which first began in 1972, in the region close to Russia's border.
Image:The photographs showed just how close the fighter jet came to the US aircraftReferring to the 19 June incident, the US military said that "due to the high rate of closure speed and poor control of the aircraft during the intercept, this interaction was determined to be unsafe".
But according to the Russian news agency TASS, it was the RC-135 plane which "made an attempt at approaching the Russian fighter jet making a provocative turn towards it".
CNN reported that there have been more than 30 interactions between US and Russian aircraft near the Baltic Sea since in recent weeks, most of which were "safe and professional" according to a US official.
"The vast majority of interactions we have, intercepts that occur when we fly and that are intercepted by the Russians are safe," said a Pentagon spokesperson.
"This is an exception, not the norm, but we were again operating in international airspace and did nothing to provoke," they added.
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