The collision forced U.S. forces to ‘bring the MQ-9 down in international waters,’ the Pentagon says
A Russian jet struck the propeller of a U.S. Reaper drone over the Black Sea, forcing U.S. forces to bring down the drone, the Pentagon said, one of the first direct military confrontationsbetween the two nations’ forces since the war in Ukraine began more than a year ago.
Before the collision, which occurred around 7 a.m. local time Tuesday, two Russian Su-27s “dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” said the U.S. European Command in a statement. “This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional,” said the EUCOM, which is responsible for U.S. military operations in the region.
USA Today-
…The incident occurred Tuesday morning when two Russian SU-27 fighters conducted an intercept of the MQ-9 Reaper drone that demonstrated the pilots’ “lack of comptence,” according to a statement from U.S. European Command. One of the fighters clipped the propeller of the drone, forcing U.S. operators to bring it down in international waters.
“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” Air Force Gen. James Hecker, commander, U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a statement. “In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
“U.S. and Allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely,” Hecker added.
Russian pilots have engaged in “a pattern of dangerous activity” that led up to Tuesday’s crash, according to European Command.
“These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous and could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation,” the statement said.
BBC-
A Russian fighter jet has collided with a US drone over the Black Sea, forcing the US to bring down its unmanned aircraft, the American military says.
It says the drone was on a routine mission in international airspace when two Russian jets tried to intercept it.
The “unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians” nearly caused one of the fighter jets and the drone to crash, the US European command added.
US and allied forces will continue to operate in the area, it said.
Fox-
A Russian Su-27 jet collided with a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea Tuesday, a U.S. defense official told Fox News.
It was one of two Su-27’s flying. This happened in international airspace over international waters. The propeller to the drone was damaged and the drone landed in the Black Sea, west of Crimea, the U.S. defense official says.
The Russian Su-27 was headed toward Crimea and landed there after this incident, the official says. It is unknown if there was any damage to the Su-27.
With Bakhmut getting ready to fall, the U.S. powers that be are DESPERATE to get us involved in this war, or at a minimum, build up our ire so we’re OK with them sending billions more in weapons and cash.
Environmentally unsound?
Russia wins by reason of EU and American idiocy
It’s my predecessor’s fault.
…the RAF used to bring down Hitler’s V1 buzz bombs, an early UAV and forerunner of the V2 missile, by the simple, if highly dangerous, expedient of flipping them over wirh their own wing.
“AN UP-LIFTING IDEA
Szymanski flew in close to observe the bomb and had an idea. “As soon as I put the port wing under its wing it started lifting. Then I put enough of my wing under it and made a sharp bank to starboard. After I straightened out from my bank it had straightened itself out but had lost some height.” He then repeated the maneuver eleven times with the same result.
Knowing that he was unarmed and running out of time, he pulled up as if beginning a loop striking it with his wingtip once more. This time, when he recovered, the V-1 was flying upside down. It went into a gradual dive and crashed into the English Channel. the pilots quickly discovered that if the pilot continued to turn the V-1 to a point where the on-board gyroscope would turn more than 90 degrees, the V-1 could not recover. If properly executed, this maneuver could override the gyro and send the V-1 into an out-of-control dive”
ht tps://roundsixpod.com/2018/02/27/flipping-off-the-bomb/
…this appears to be a Russian verson of that.
And it worked.
Net score; the US is down 1 with no real loss of anything, even ammo, to the Russians, and no reason they can’t do it over and over again.
…and guys, no one who wants to win a war gives a crap about your ESG score. No one else is going to fight in an “ecologically friendly” way…because they aren’t fighting to LOSE.
And I guess we know now that high speed, bold, unexpected maneuvers are considered too gauche for use by the United States.
Thaf should make the first real dogfight very imteresting and profitable.
For the Russians.
Any statement made under this illegal regime is taken with a grain of salt.
I’m surprised the biden regime did not claim this to be an unprovoked attack on a peaceful aircraft.
Routine spying mission for Ukraine. What do they expect from the Russians? I think Putin has shown incredible restraint … as regards US and NATO interference. (Whether that interference is justified or correct is another subject)
With the financial and monetary sectors collapsing, a war would be a nice distraction … and an excuse to declare martial law. It’s almost like they scripted it.
“dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” said the U.S. European Command.
They are killing the polar bears! How dare they!
Someone needs to be turned over her daddy’s knee and have the snot pounded out of her in order to possibly regain some common sense. She proves the old proverb of spare the rod, spoil the child.
Aren’t the drones equipped with a self destruct explosive charge? Next time the Ruskies try that maneuver, hit the red button. And aren’t some of our drones equipped with air-to-air missiles?
“We shall demand an immediate apology from Mr. Putin for this unprovoked, dastardly attack, or we shall call on Scotland Yard to send a constable to intervene”.
Some how all the weapons we’re sending to Ukraine and being used aren’t an environmental problem or the pipelines we blew up? Nothing to see there?
aleon: “Any statement made under this illegal regime is taken with a grain of salt.” . . . And a shot of tequila.
Every Reaper will now require one manned Hornet.
*Seat O’ Pants , FTW
Every morning for the past 3+ years, one of the first things I do is check “Flightradar24dotcom” to see whats “up”, and just about every morning on the most tracked list is (NORTE09) loitering about 50nm off Crimea. In addition to that thing there are any number of NATO, RAF, and US military, with a cameo from Italy, aircraft buzzing around the perimeter of the zone just trying to piss off the Russians. No one should be surprised if the Russians don’t have the boundaries dialed in and when one of these gets too close this is what happens.
NATO and the Pollyannagon better be careful. It wouldn’t take much for the Russians to stop being “gentlemen”.
Tony R, that drone probably cost four times as much as the Russian plane. And the drone pilot probably has to go through a self-destruct protocol which takes an hour and goes all the way up the chain to the Pentagram.
I sure hope the Russian plane wasn’t damaged.
Gulf of Tonkin