The Pentagon on Thursday released a video that it said showed the encounter a US MQ-9 Reaper drone had with two Russian fighters before being downed over the Black Sea.
The video appears to show a Russian Su-27 flying near the drone and dumping fuel as it passed. The video shows what is either the same plane or a second plane making another pass and releasing more fuel.
The US said one of the Su-27 fighters made contact with the MQ-9’s propeller, causing it to crash. Russia has denied that the aircraft came in contact and said the US drone crashed as a result of a “sharp maneuver” it made after being intercepted.
The video doesn’t show any contact between the drone and the Russian fighters, but one blade of the MQ-9 propeller does appear to be damaged at the end of the 42-second video.
Russia said the US MQ-9 entered an area near Crimea that was restricted due to Russian military operations, while the US claimed the drone was flying a “routine” surveillance mission. The incident highlights the danger of the US operating in the Black Sea, especially while giving so much support to Ukraine in its war against Russia.
The incident prompted Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to call his Russian counterpart, Sergey Shoigu. Austin and other US officials have vowed that US flights over the Black Sea will continue despite the risk of escalation. Russian officials have said they’re trying to recover the debris of the MQ-9.
“Russia said the US MQ-9 entered an area near Crimea that was restricted due to Russian military operations, while the US claimed the drone was flying a “routine” surveillance mission. The incident highlights the danger of the US operating in the Black Sea, especially while giving so much support to Ukraine in its war against Russia.”
I know there is no whataboutism allowed but I’ll do it anyway. And of course, I’m talking about the US. Same circumstances on our border, international waters or not, and that drone would have been taken out and there would have been no denials. The MSM would have screamed self-defense and the masses would have taken to the streets chanting USA! USA!.
Spot on.
Wars, whataboutism is perfectly reasonable. Great post.
Taking out that propeller, which he obviously did, shows amazing skill. Maverick better stick to downing balloons.
lol.
I imagine that Russian media will be airing this video a lot, and that it will be an effective recruiting tool for their volunteer army.
I’ll bet that dumping that fuel blinded the drone pilot. Austin has been vividly warned that Russia has a solution for this kind of behavior.
I think you must be right. The clip actually shows it degrading into pixels.
2nd video is a fake. The stripes on the prop blades are missing. Sloppy work.
That’s what I’m thinking. If it was bent like that, it would fall off.
Look closely at the images. The first propeller shown has two yellow stripes at the tip of each propeller blade. The propeller shown that has the damage visible on it lacks these yellow stripes. It is a different aircraft and the video is a forgery.
That isn’t the reason for me questioning it. You could explain lack of stripes with sunlight angle. What they show is bogus because aircraft would nosedive from such damage and/or entire prop assembly would fall apart doing more damage to tail section. The thing rotates at thousands of RPM.
Sunlight angle would not make visibility stripes vanish completely. Oscillations would be severe though they may have just looped a short clip from a different drone that sustained damage.
I think it’s video editing. There would be far more turbulence on the cam if the damage was real. And like I already said, it would nosedive from lack of thrust.
Where do you see a fuel dump? It is nothing but a stsndard jet engine trail when filmed ftom a close distance. With a damaded proper, andcasva result of contact, drone would have been in a uncontrolled spin, not just continuing flight as normal.
No idea what is the purpose of drama. To justify the loss of the drone?
Wow, you could not be more delusional.
These are the words. Just throwing around words — as ithey signify somrthing. There is nothing published thus far to show that Russia jet colided with the drone or that it dumped fuel. Footage from the drone shows it operating as normal, and no fuel dump looks like a typical jet engine trail. The drone was transmitting footage even if propeller struck, and even while descending in unplanned manner. Why bother show footage that tells absolutely nothing.
And what is this drama all about? To keep oubluc suitably in the anti-Russian mood? To milk it as lingvas possible?
Or to avoid talking about the decisions made at that time. Tthere were two couses of action available at the time. Turn around and leave Russia’s space, or attempt a maneuver to avoid jets and manage to proceed a little closer to shore.. It was already 37 mikes off Sevastopol.
How about being factual. This dystopian words blowing is getting stale.
I agree Bianca.Also, editing helps make a more convincing argument.
Apologies,
Some Pedant, Jr.
“Why bother show footage that tells absolutely nothing.”
With a little Top Gun music, you can convince most people that drone was in a vicious dog fight.
Imagine if Russia flew a drone in the a Gulf of Mexico…If we mean what we say about not wanting a war with Russia than why is the drone even there?..
Imagine if China flew a weather balloon over America…..oh wait.
The drone is there to supply Ukraine with targeting information so the US can discretely kill Russians.
The US is providing Ukraine with targeting data and Battle Damage Assessment BDA. I guess Russia is fed up with Ukrainian attacks on Crimea with American support and violation of the Crimea / Black Sea Exclusionary Zone.
Here is a fact that the American Department of Defense failed to divulge in their press briefing.
When belligerents are in a conflict nations can declare Exclusionary Zones. America has done it in Iraq and Russia has declared the airspace near Crimea an exclusionary zone.
“An exclusion zone is a territorial division established for various, case-specific purposes.”
“Per the United States Department of Defense, an exclusion zone is a territory where an authority prohibits specific activities in a specific geographic area (see military exclusion zone). These temporary or permanent zones are created for control of populations for safety, crowd control, or military purposes, or as a border zone.”
The Russian Su-27 aircraft did 19 passes alerting the drone operator to leave the airspace. On the 19th pass next to the drone there was an issue or tactic which brought down the drone.
The MQ-9 drone had one of the most sensitive Electronic Intelligence – ELINT gathering devices on it for a drone. As for operations with the Drone transponder off, there was a reason. If the transponder was on there would have been an open source of information on it’s flight path. Not good for the US when the world is watching and the US wants to claim aggrieved status. Gathering information to kill Russians is the purpose of the drone’s mission.
The Russians are managing escalations and therefore did not shoot down the drone, but they brought it down.
The cut/EDIT at 0:42 is some lame bullshit. Really? Put some effort in and make an adequate deep fake. Pathetic
The editors probably didn’t have much time with various bosses and supervisors pushing them to hurry up.
Yeah it looks like a whole different drone.
And the drones continue to be pissed on and go down to the Black Sea,,,!
Funniest talking points, ‘Russian pilots are so bad they can’t avoid collisions’. Some U.S. Congressman said that but clipping a propeller and not crashing your aircraft actually shows great skill. Could Mr. Congressman do that?
meanwhile there are numerous giant chemtrails in the sky over los angeles county every single day
So
in the ever evolving story more and more details are emerging about the
downing of an American MQ-9 drone. According to Lloyd J Austin and
Milley the drone came down in deep water perhaps 5,000 feet in depth. I
had assumed, based on those statements, that the drone was well out in
the Black Sea.
Further video released by the DOD
with a wider view clearly shows the Crimean landmass close by. Some
have calculated that the drone was as close as 12 NM or less from the
Sevastopol Naval Base. The Russians have indicated that they located the
drone wreckage close to the Sevastopol military complex.
In
this photo you can see a damaged prop blade, however and most
importantly, look at the landmass in the bottom of the photo. That my
friends in Crimea and in particular the Sevastopol Naval Base and Balbek
Airbase.
From all the US media telling us about Russia being backwards and having outdated weapons, that’s some excellent flying skills. Dumping cold fuel at that speed on the drone’s propellors is like throwing pile of bricks
From all the US media telling us about Russia being backwards and having outdated weapons, that’s some excellent flying skills. Dumping cold fuel at that speed on the drone’s propellors is like throwing pile of bricks
The video is so obviously fake. The jets are not Russian MOD they do not have the red star on the underside of the wings.
Also i notice the bomb bay is open? Is this the actual drone in the black Sea, i doubt it.
I don’t care HOW the drone crashed; I only care that it DID 😝