Russian fighter jet hits American drone over Black Sea, US military says

[cigaretteman]

A Russian fighter jet on Tuesday struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle in international waters, the U.S. military said, an incident that highlighted soaring U.S.-Russian tensions over Moscow's war in Ukraine.




A U.S. MQ-9 drone is on display during an air show at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018.
AP Photo/Massoud Hossaini, File
White House National Security spokesman John Kirby said U.S. President Joe Biden was briefed on the incident by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

The U.S. European Command said in a statement that two Russian Su-27 fighter jets "conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept" of a U.S. MQ-9 drone that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea.

It said one of the Russian fighters "struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters." Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times before the collision in "a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner," the U.S. European Command said in a statement from Stuttgart, Germany

​

"This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional," it added.
There was no immediate reaction from Moscow, which has repeatedly voiced concern about U.S. intelligence flights close to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia illegally annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian fighter jet hits American drone over Black Sea, US military says

A Russian fighter jet on Tuesday struck the propeller of a U.S. surveillance drone over the Black Sea, causing American forces to bring down the unmanned aerial vehicle in international waters.

nonpareilonline.com

 

[THE_DEVIL]

 

[BioHawk]

I'm surprised the drone didn't fall out of a window somewhere.

 

[lucas80]

Pretty deliberate provocation by Putin. It's a beta move, but it's all he's got these days until a pussy like DeSantis is POTUS.
I imagine we do not have any ships in the Black Sea right now, so we will see if Turkey let's one in from the Med to lead the search or the drone. We will want to recover it. I suppose we could ask the Romanians or Bulgarians to lend us a ship.

 

[TC Nole OX]

We need to sink one of their ships

 

[RollingBallofButcherKnives]

Surprised it didn’t wreck the pos Russian fighter…..

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Is this "Russia bad" or "Russia justified"?

Unless different reports claim otherwise, this was our drone being operated by our guys.

Now, sure, it was over international waters. But it was definitely us. And it goes almost without saying that this was us being directly involved the Ukraine war.

As far as I know, we've been careful to help Ukraine without doing it ourselves.

But it's a gray area. It wasn't attacking anything, as far as we know. So does it cross some line?

Assuming it was gathering intelligence for Ukraine isn't a stretch, but is that any different from us giving Ukraine satellite data or other logistical support?

Personally, I feel sorry for the poor drone. Picked on like that.

 

[BioHawk]

We are not at war and the drone was in international waters. This is definitely a "Russia bad" move.

 

[lucas80]

Surprised it didn’t wreck the pos Russian fighter…..

It was a dangerous maneuver. Any collision at the speed a jet goes with something solid might have severely damaged that MiG. The contact might have been incidental, of course.

 

[mnole03]

Tell China now that Russia attacked us, any weapons support will be met with tariffs or other sanctions.

 

[desihawk]

"...one of the Russian fighters "struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters." Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times......"

why didn't they just shoot it with bullets?

 

[lucas80]

"...one of the Russian fighters "struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters." Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times......"

why didn't they just shoot it with bullets?

Some corrupt officer sold them prior to the war starting?
Like the balloons over the US, shooting down a slow moving drone with a jet is tough. Maybe they could have used a missile, but, I imagine the whole point was to provide enough deniability for the home TV market, and for douche bags like Tucker Carlson. The peaceful Russian jet was attacked by the rogue US drone.

 

[mnole03]

"...one of the Russian fighters "struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters." Prior to that, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 several times......"

why didn't they just shoot it with bullets?

Need to save the bullets for their troops that retreat.

 

[desihawk]

The article doesn't say whether who recovered the downed drone. The unorthodox collision method could indicate they didn't want to damage the drone and this is an attempt to "steal" it. THe chinese did the same (collision method) thing a couple (?) years ago and got to pick apart some very sophisticated American tech.

Dismantled U.S. Spy Plane Flown Out of China

abcnews.go.com

 

[mnole03]

The article doesn't say whether who recovered the downed drone. The unorthodox collision method could indicate they didn't want to damage the drone and this is an attempt to "steal" it. THe chinese did the same (collision method) thing a couple (?) years ago and got to pick apart some very sophisticated American tech.

Dismantled U.S. Spy Plane Flown Out of China

abcnews.go.com

They didn’t want us to raise the thing to find bullet holes or missile damage.

 

[TC Nole OX]

 

[SA_Hawk]

It was a dangerous maneuver. Any collision at the speed a jet goes with something solid might have severely damaged that MiG. The contact might have been incidental, of course.

It was an SU not a MiG.

 

[Flie]

Some corrupt officer sold them prior to the war starting?
Like the balloons over the US, shooting down a slow moving drone with a jet is tough. Maybe they could have used a missile, but, I imagine the whole point was to provide enough deniability for the home TV market, and for douche bags like Tucker Carlson. The peaceful Russian jet was attacked by the rogue US drone.

Tucker would show a clip of a drone flying peacefully and tell the viewers that the government is lying to them.

 

[SA_Hawk]

Iran shot down an U.S. RQ-4 Global Hawk drone during the Trump administration. A few months later Iran top general was blown up at the Baghdad airport by a U.S drone.

 

[mnole03]

Tucker would show a clip of a drone flying peacefully and tell the viewers that the government is lying to them.

Do these look like the actions of a hostile Russian jet?

 

[TheCainer]

Some corrupt officer sold them prior to the war starting?
Like the balloons over the US, shooting down a slow moving drone with a jet is tough. Maybe they could have used a missile, but, I imagine the whole point was to provide enough deniability for the home TV market, and for douche bags like Tucker Carlson. The peaceful Russian jet was attacked by the rogue US drone.

The drone probably backed into it, per Putin's stooges, and a few of his followers on this board.

 

[TheCainer]

They didn’t want us to raise the thing to find bullet holes or missile damage.

I heard the Pentagon actually has footage of the encounter. Whether they release it or not is yet to be determined.

 

[FAUlty Gator]

We should get back at Putin by not electing Biden or Trump.

 

[GOHOX69]

It was a dangerous maneuver. Any collision at the speed a jet goes with something solid might have severely damaged that MiG. The contact might have been incidental, of course.

They were sukhoi's. Russia no longer makes mig's and whatever is left are largely unservicable or exports. The mig bureau went bankrupt many years ago.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

We are not at war

Of course we are.

Fortunately, the hot part is still just a proxy war. We don't want it to escalate into direct conflict.

BS like this goes on all the time, and rarely gets much attention. The only reason to worry about it is that we're making a big fuss about it. We aren't trying to deescalate.

This is like the Chines balloon kerfuffle. Don't ignore it, but don't blow it out of proportion.

 

[BioHawk]

Of course we are.

Fortunately, the hot part is still just a proxy war. We don't want it to escalate into direct conflict.

BS like this goes on all the time, and rarely gets much attention. The only reason to worry about it is that we're making a big fuss about it. We aren't trying to deescalate.

This is like the Chines balloon kerfuffle. Don't ignore it, but don't blow it out of proportion.

Your interpretation of what a war is won't hold up in court. I'm not saying you are wrong, but I was speaking from a legal standpoint.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

Your interpretation of what a war is won't hold up in court. I'm not saying you are wrong, but I was speaking from a legal standpoint.

I can agree with that.

Unfortunately, I don't think enough people are paying attention to the non-military side of the war. The disruption of grain from Ukraine, the oil market stresses, etc. We talk about them, but we don't see them as blows being struck in this war.

The reason this worries me is because while we shrug off these things - mainly because they don't hurt us much and may even benefit some US sectors - they may be seen as very war-like attacks by Russia (and China as we ramp up the rhetoric and sanctions there), which could provoke more conventional attacks in what they perceive to be justified retaliation.

I think we need to make more of an effort to ask ourselves how we'd feel in their shoes. We are being more warlike in our public expressions than I think is good for keeping the lid on further escalation.

 

[What Would Jesus Do?]

 

[TC Nole OX]