14 March 2023, official USAF video: two Russian Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers cause USAF MQ-9 Reaper drone to crash...

[Stratofreighter]

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/202 ... -sea-crash
/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64957792

A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday morning,
when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets
flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea.

The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.

“Several times before the collision,
the Su-27s dumped fuel on
and flew in front of the MQ-9
in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,”
the US statement said.

“This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.”

One of the Russian fighters then struck drone’s propeller
“causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 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,”
Gen James Hecker, the US Air Force commander for Europe and Africa, said.

“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”

[Ragnar]

A Su27 'hit' the prop of an MQ9.... sounds more like a mid air collision which made them both crash?

[Stratofreighter]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/r ... -black-sea

"There was [a] deliberate intent to interfere with the MQ-9,
but the collision seems to be simple incompetence," an Air Force official separately told The War Zone.

"Immediately after the impact, the video footage cut out for several seconds. It is unclear what damage the Su-27 incurred, but it returned to base,"

"I’m sure the impact left a mark, though.

A few inches further forward,
and the Russian jet would have been severely damaged and probably destroyed."

There are now unconfirmed reports of a Russian Su-27 landing at a base in Crimea with some degree of damage.
The base in question is very likely Belbek, home to the 38th Fighter Aviation Regiment, which flies Su-27SM Flankers.

The U.K. Ministry of Defense did previously say
that a Russian Su-27 Flanker had “released” a missile during an intercept of Royal Air Force (RAF) RC-135W Rivet Joint
electronic surveillance aircraft in October 2022.

Multiple sources familiar with Reaper operations and performance
noted that changes in power can result in rapid deceleration.

With the Su-27 and MQ-9 being about as dissimilar as possible from one another,
it's possible a Russian aircraft looking to harass the MQ-9
could have rammed into it during a minute power change.

Also, MQ-9 pilots have very limited situational awareness around them,
which only increases the risks of an intercepting aircraft flying much too close.

At a routine press briefing today,
Pentagon Press Secretary U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said
that efforts were being made to declassify imagery captured by the MQ-9 during the incident.

If such imagery is released, this could help shed more light on exactly what transpired.

Ryder also said that he had nothing to share
on potential U.S. efforts to recover the drone and that he was not aware of any Russian attempts so far to do so, either.

[Glidepath]

a former US general commented yesterday about "in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,”" And observed that there's someone within the US DoD that is concerned about the environment and this particular 'case of dumped fuel' and the impact that has......
well indeed.
and he continued that flying always does impacts the environment. Which is both a fact and true

in the end:
a Russians jockey either made a slight error of judgement when he impacted.
or he may have wanted to do a move akin to what RAF Spitfires heroiclly did in WW2 with Nazi-Germany's V-1 Flying Bombs. Be it on this occasion without being at war with the other side.
You can be lucky doing that, sometimes is goes sideways, like with the Ukr AF jet pilot who accidently destroyed his own A/C in the process.

[Stratofreighter]

VIDEO:
https://twitter.com/Gerashchenko_en/sta ... 4593378304
how near can you go
Certainly not a safe distance...

Russian Telegram channels published a video reportedly from the Su-27 fighter plane.

It shows that the US MQ-9 Reaper drone was deliberately taken down by Russian fighter plane maneuvering - which got the drone into the jet trail of the plane.

It probably is real:
https://mobile.twitter.com/EliotHiggins ... 5133843456
Bellingcat is right most of the time, most of the time...

[Stratofreighter]

...that video may have originated from the Fighter Bomber account at Telegram.

That account also used to be active on Youtube.

...themoscowtimes.com/2023/03/15/russia-urges-us-to-stop-hostile-flights-after-drone-crash-a80484
is not a working link...

Russia Urges U.S. to Stop 'Hostile' Flights After Drone Crash
By AFP

"We assume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media and stop flights near Russian borders," Russia's Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said Wednesday.

"We consider any action with the use of U.S. weaponry as openly hostile," he wrote on social media channel Telegram.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby followed up saying, "obviously, we refute the Russians' denial."

He added the United States was trying to prevent the fallen drone from getting into the wrong hands.

"We've taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone — that particular aircraft," Kirby told CNN.


Russian intercepts over the Black Sea are common, Kirby said in Washington,
but this one "is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was,
indeed reckless that it was."

[Ajaxfever]

s/n of the reaper ending at 2.4. The middle digit or a 3 or a 5. So or 234 or 254.

[Stratofreighter]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/russia-downp ... 42282.html
/
https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

Wed, March 15, 2023 at 2:43 PM GMT+1

The Kremlin said the incident proved again that Washington is directly involved in the fighting
and added that Moscow would try to recover the wreckage of the drone
from the Black Sea.

U.S. officials said the incident showed Russia’s aggressive and risky behavior
and they pledged to continue their surveillance.

Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of Russia’s Security Council,
said in televised remarks the drone incident was “another confirmation”
of direct U.S. involvement in the Ukraine conflict.

The Kremlin has repeatedly said the United States and other NATO members
have become direct war participants by supplying weapons and intelligence
to the Kyiv government and pressuring Ukraine not to negotiate peace.

Patrushev, a close confidant of President Vladimir Putin,
also said Russia planned to search for the drone's debris.

A U.S. official said it was unclear whether Washington would recover
the fragments after securing the information it had gathered.

“I don’t know if we can recover them or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” Patrushev said.
“I certainly hope for success.”

Sergei Naryshkin, the head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service,
said Russia has the technological capability to recover the drone’s fragments.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64961958

Senior Washington official John Kirby said
the US also wanted to locate the aircraft,
but stressed that if Russia beat them to it,
"their ability to exploit useful intelligence will be highly minimised".

Speaking to ABC America's morning news program, Good Morning America,
he added that there were logistical challenges
as it crashed in "very deep water".

US military officials said the incident happened on Tuesday morning
and the confrontation lasted around 30-40 minutes.

[Stratofreighter]

US releases footage of Russian jet crashing into drone

Declassified footage from the US military shows the moment a Russian jet crashed into a US drone on Tuesday.

The American military says the collision meant it later had to bring down the drone into the Black Sea.

The US has released a small excerpt and the BBC has not seen the events before or afterwards.

Published
22 minutes ago

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-us-canada-64974825
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01PJ3DfcjMI

[SquAdmin]

Oopski...

Probably trying to scare it away by dumping fuel very nearby. If the intention was to bring it down, they could have just used guns or missiles.

[Starfighter_F-104G]

my info say :
15-4294

[Wildpicture]

Oopski...

Probably trying to scare it away by dumping fuel very nearby. If the intention was to bring it down, they could have just used guns or missiles.

The dumped fuel could impede sensors on the Reaper. But they could also hope it would catch fire. That would destroy it without them touching it.

Makes me think of the V1's in WW2. British fighters tried to knock them out of the sky by tipping the wings with their own wings. The Germans then installed ignition switches under the wingtips. Maybe the Reapers could be fitted with a kind of proximity device.

[SquAdmin]

Makes me think of the V1's in WW2. British fighters tried to knock them out of the sky by tipping the wings with their own wings. The Germans then installed ignition switches under the wingtips. Maybe the Reapers could be fitted with a kind of proximity device.

V1's were on a one way trip anyway, Reapers are supposed to be reused after each mission. They can be armed with Sidewinders, but the question is if the Americans are willing to go that way.

[Canberra TT.18]

I think bringing down an (unmanned) aircraft with fuel, a gun a missile or tipping over is all the same.
You destroy someone's other aircraft
I don't think it is definated it has to be by gun or missile.

And Germany and UK were at war. So UK had every right to destroy the V1s.

And what if the Flanker turns-on its afterburners to avoid the Reaper at last moment.. With the dumped fuel this might create some great fireworks...

[Key]

Intercepts are fine. Deliberately endangering another aircraft over international waters is criminal. Buzzing another aircraft that you can't see while closing in is plain stupid. It ignores the fundamentals of formation flying. This was extremely poor airmanship by the Su-27 pilot by any standard, even apart from the clear intent to at least damage the MQ-9.

Erik