CNN:
A Russian fighter jet forced down a US Air Force drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday after damaging the propeller of the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, according to the US military.
The Reaper drone and two Russian Su-27 aircraft were flying over international waters over the Black Sea on Tuesday when one of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of and dumped fuel on the unmanned drone several times, a statement from US European Command said.
The aircraft then hit the propeller of the drone, prompting US forces to bring the MQ-9 drone down in international waters. Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder added Tuesday that the Russian aircraft flew “in the vicinity” of the drone for 30 to 40 minutes before colliding just after 7 a.m. Central European Time.
I don’t know what to think. On one hand this makes very little sense. Russian jet fighters, like all jet fighters, have onboard cannons. There is little reason for them to risk their $100 million dollar jet ramming a drone.
On the other hand, it’s funny if it actually happened, so I’m torn.
“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 B. Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in the statement. “In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
The incident marks the first time Russian and US military aircraft have come into direct physical contact since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine just over a year ago and is likely to increase tensions between the two nations, with US calling Russia’s actions “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional.”
They don’t provide any footage of the environment genociding Russian jet colliding with the drone. Theoretically they would have it, but they don’t show it.
Mid air accidents do happen, and it’s possible the jet was buzzing the drone. But even if they did shoot it down, who cares? Everyone knows the US blew up the Nordstream pipeline. Did that cause any environmental damage?
The US has been sending hundreds of billions to Zelensky right from the start. These UAVs are used to do surveillance against the Russian forces, and they are more than entitled to start shooting them down.
“We have warned not to enter, not to penetrate,” [Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov] said, asking how the US would react if a Russian drone came close to New York or San Francisco.
Antonov reiterated a denial issued by the Russian Ministry of Defense on the incident. They denied the Russian jet had come into contact with the drone in a statement earlier on Tuesday, saying the fighter jets “scrambled to identify the intruder” after detecting it over the Black Sea, adding that the drone “went into an unguided flight with a loss of altitude.”
“The drone flew with its transponders off, violating the boundaries of the temporary airspace regime established for the special military operation, communicated to all users of international airspace, and published in accordance with international standards,” the ministry said.
I’m so far beyond caring about the minutia of the situation that I’m not going to bother figuring out exactly what happened, but this sounds believable to me. The US flies surveillance drones against Russia in a military zone occupied by them and without their transponders on. Then they whine when they get shot down. Maybe they even intentionally downed it themselves in order to false flag Russia. If so, it’s one of the lamest false flags in all of human history, since no one cares.
This is a non-story and the only reason I’m writing about it is to show what a bunch of evil clowns we have for military leadership. Maybe if they weren’t such tards they wouldn’t be holocausting kids balloons, failing to launch missiles, and might be able to recruit someone every now and then.
UPDATE:
If nothing else, the memes are top notch.
The jet fighters didn’t use their guns because that would become an excuse for the Americans to shoot down Russian planes because they are “armed and dangerous.”
Ramming vehicle vs shooting it is like the difference between tackling someone to the ground and shooting at them
I think it’s insane to ram anything with a jet fighter. More likely they accidentally hit it while piddling on it.