How credible is this story? First off, how would Russian operators even know the destroyer’s Aegis had shut down? The Pentagon insisted shortly after the incident that Donald Cook was “more than capable of defending itself.”

And Russian Radio stated that after the alleged jamming, Donald Cook “rushed into a port in Romania.”

“There, all the 27 members of the crew filed a letter of resignation,” the Website claimed. “It seems that all 27 people have written that they are not going to risk their lives.”

Um, Donald Cook has a crew of around 280 people. There are no verifiable reports that any of the ship’s sailors resigned. That’s not the sort of thing that happens, well, ever in the U.S. Navy.

Besides, why would Russia would give the U.S. a chance to analyze its latest jamming system? Spoofing a solitary warship isn’t worth betraying an purported major leap in electronic-warfare capability.

Still, it’s not hard to see why Russian Radio would disseminate this propaganda. The site quotes a Russian political scientist saying the jamming of Donald Cook, along with a long string of U.S. missile defense failures, proves that America’s multi-billion-dollar missile defenses don’t work.

“The ground component of the [anti-ballistic missile] was tested in ideal conditions and showed a low efficiency,” said Pavel Zolotarev, deputy director of the Institute of USA and Canada, a Moscow think tank. “This fact is concealed by the Pentagon. The most modern component, the sea-based system Aegis, also showed its shortcomings in the present case.”

With Poland shopping for its own missile-interceptor system, the jamming story might be meant to discourage Russia’s nervous neighbors, as well as the U.S., from pursuing such defenses.

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