Russia Intercepts and Downs MQ-9 "Reaper" Drone Over Black Sea

[prambo]

Lindsey Graham and The War Drum Band Going Bananas After Russians Intercept U.S. Spy Drone Over Black Sea - The Last Refuge

The statement from fUSA European Command is hysterical...

Russian aircraft collides into US unmanned system in international waters

"[a] Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters. 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. This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional."

My. oh my...."...environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner."

Did they muss up its hair too, and smear its lipstick?

There is no statement on the drone's pronouns - I'm outraged - fUSA.MIL may have misgendered the drone.

Or was it a "binary" drone?

Was it an ESG drone?

Bad poo-poo Russia, they took a jet fuel pee-pee on it and then splashed it - my goodness, those Russkies fight war like they mean it.

 

[kev74]

Impressive flying by the roosky. Supposedly they first tried to force the drone down by dumping fuel on it. That didn't work so he took out the propeller with his wing

It would have been much more environmentally friendly if the would have used the Russian equivalent of a stinger to take out the drone, like Brandon had the balloons taken care of.

 

[MothMan]

I wonder if the drone pilot knows who Francis Gary Powers was?

 

[Jsmegs77]

Someone needs to smack Lindsey Graham with a frozen trout. Proxy war is quite enough, nobody in the US wants a declared (or undeclared, as in every conflict since Vietnam) war, except stockholders in defense industries.

 

[GOYABEAN]

Someone needs to smack Lindsey Graham with a frozen trout. Proxy war is quite enough, nobody in the US wants a declared (or undeclared, as in every conflict since Vietnam) war, except stockholders in defense industries.

Has lindsey set up a donation fund for the downed drone yet

 

[Cavalry]

Are they really complaining about fuel? Aircraft dump fuel, even over the US with very little reason, recourse or permission, all the time. Taking off with an unruly passenger and have to return to the airport? They are dumping all the fuel to get under landing weight. A lot of times on long flights if they had favorable winds they will dump.

 

[kev74]

Are they really complaining about fuel? Aircraft dump fuel, even over the US with very little reason, recourse or permission, all the time. Taking off with an unruly passenger and have to return to the airport? They are dumping all the fuel to get under landing weight. A lot of times on long flights if they had favorable winds they will dump.

 

[Bigfoot]

If it is so important to Lindsey Graham. He is always welcome to kit up himself, and then go fight the Russians to the death. After all, he has a history of always being the first to call for war. Any war.

 

[Mosinitis]

Sean Hannity is still on the air pimping wars. Putin was watching the flight of Chinese balloon over U.S. and decided to bring down American drone. This is how this went down, there was no other reason for the Russians to sink that drone.

Hannity was one of the leading cheerleaders for Iraq war. Is Dick Cheney still checking in to talk about rape rooms in Iraq. Fucking con artists.

 

[Vinson57]

The USAF operator sitting back as a nice base with air conditioning today went to S1 to apply for combat pay. The an award is coming of how they averted grave danger.

 

[kev74]

There's not a whole lot of propeller hanging out to try and hit with a wing.

 

[RedBreast21]

Well Zelensky has called on the West to help attack Crimea so this drone, armed or not, was clearly doing reconnaissance and probably had its transponder off when it moved into the Air Defense Identification Zone ADIZ a violation of international law. Unless you are attempting not to be discovered or you're engaging in what might be considered an act of war.

Russia could have shot in down but I suspect they want to collect it and use it as evidence to show that its mission was either recon or to launch missiles at Russian targets. Either way, it's an act of war. I mean we wouldn't allow this type of activity off the coast of NYC, right? We did shoot down weather balloons with F22's just to be safe.

 

[GOYABEAN]

There's not a whole lot of propeller hanging out to try and hit with a wing.

View attachment 193594

I doubt they used their Su-27 and made physical contact a few pew pew pew rounds would be more believable!

The Predator has a wingspan of 55 feet, is 27 feet long, 6.9 feet high and carries a payload of up to 450 pounds and has a maximum speed of 135 mph (217 km/h).

 

[RedBreast21]

I doubt they used their Su-27 and made physical contact a few pew pew pew rounds would be more believable!

The Predator has a wingspan of 55 feet, is 27 feet long, 6.9 feet high and carries a payload of up to 450 pounds and has a maximum speed of 135 mph (217 km/h).

You got me thinking. I found this:

"The MQ-9 Reaper drone was flying a routine surveillance mission in international airspace when it crossed paths with two Su-27 fighters around 7 a.m. local time, according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

The Russian jets began antagonizing the unmanned aircraft, repeatedly dumping fuel on and buzzing in front of the much smaller Reaper, the Air Force said. One Su-27 drew close enough to hit the drone’s tail propeller, causing its remote operators to lose control of the plane."-defensenews.com


Fast Facts: 300 mph (max speed), 194 mph (cruise speed), 14 hours endurance
Cost: $15.9 Million
Dimensions: 36′ x 65′
Range: 1,200 miles
First flight: 2001


General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (also called Predator B) is one of the most popular military drones.
The United States Air Force primarily uses the MQ-9 Reaper though it is also used by the Navy, CIA, and NASA.
It is considered the first “hunter-killer UAV” with a design that promotes high altitude and long endurance missions.

So yeah, it wasn't just spying. It was looking for a target. Why else would it be flying with its transponder off in the Black Sea near a war zone? I guess we now know that the Russian air defense systems are capable so mission accomplished. See, they can turn anything into a victory.

 

[kev74]

I doubt they used their Su-27 and made physical contact a few pew pew pew rounds would be more believable!

The Predator has a wingspan of 55 feet, is 27 feet long, 6.9 feet high and carries a payload of up to 450 pounds and has a maximum speed of 135 mph (217 km/h).

Only going by what I read.

 

[GOYABEAN]

Only going by what I read.

I know I'm waiting for the video if and when it pops up those Russian pilots have a tendency of buzzing US military planes and ships.

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

I'm annoyed by this that we lost a taxpayer drone.

Frankly as annoyed as I am about this in honestly I can't blame the Russians. If I was a Russian citizen I would be furious that US assets like drones are being used to provide targeting data to Ukrainians to push buttons or pull triggers to kill Russians. In fairness Russia has a valid claim to down an unmanned drone which is being used against Russian interests.

I'm also annoyed I think it's likely that this will be used as justification to increase our footprint. I bet it's extremely likely we will have f22's flying over the black sea now. No thanks I don't want any part of ww3.

I'm annoyed at the whole situation all around

 

[GOYABEAN]

The US shot down its own MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea due to a collision with a Russian Su-27 fighter | gagadget.com

Rumours that an American MQ-9 Reaper drone developed by General Atomics was shot down over the Black Sea have been confirmed. But there are some interesting nuances.

gagadget.com

 

[kev74]

 

[Jsmegs77]

Would’ve been amusing if they dropped in front of it and whacked the afterburners. Jet wash can play havoc with prop driven planes. Wonder if that Twitter vid is legit?

 

[fresch]

Jet wash
That's how goose died bailing out of a flat spin.

 

[RedBreast21]

So yeah, I went down the rabbit hole with this for a few minutes to answer some questions I had.

They said the drone is in about 5200' of water. Well that puts the drone as close as 25 miles from a major Russian naval base. It was armed with one of the most sophisticated signals intelligence collection tech devices available. At the admitted 10,000 foot altitude, that gave it 122 miles of LOS. Listening deep inside at all Russian military bases on the peninsula. I don't believe the U.S. would allow any drone within that distance to the U.S. since our Air Defense Identification Zone is about 100 miles from our coast. Clearly well beyond the 12 miles to international waters. Any nation can push that line out for national security interests. So it reads. I imagine the Russians did this.

The transponder was likely turned off as many other entities including non governmental, could track its path and that would foul up any narrative we chose to put out about its location. Lots of groups listening and following air traffic.

It is reported that the Russian pilots flew past it 19 times to get it to divert. I believe that. Typical cold war tactic played out in the past. Just based on that fact and the fact the U.S. won't say where in went down. Release the entire video.

WW3 rapidly approaching brought to you by feckless idiots we ideologically protect. Just listen the republican war mongers and cable tv pudits playing their part for the globalists.

 

[holdover]

Russia could have shot in down but I suspect they want to collect it and use it as evidence to show that its mission was either recon or to launch missiles at Russian targets. Either way, it's an act of war. I mean we wouldn't allow this type of activity off the coast of NYC, right? We did shoot down weather balloons with F22's just to be safe.

Welllllllll, not really, technically, it was a ""collision"" they could have easily shot it down , but this gives them some plausible deniability .

they knew what they were doing.

the last thing Russia wants is a war with the US , and The US doesnt want a real war with Russia , so its not gonna happen At this point anyway.

 

[holdover]

Heres the first video. I cant be 100% certain but it looks like a JDAM attached

 

[ArmedCorgi]

Heres the first video. I cant be 100% certain but it looks like a JDAM attached



View attachment 193767

You sure that isn't just a fuel tank?

 

[Drinkthekoolaid]

You sure that isn't just a fuel tank?
View attachment 193768

I did a screenshot too and zoomed in.

Looks like a data sensor



There is a video taken from the drone that shows after the su27 pass by one of the prop blades is bent backwards

 

[RedBreast21]

Welllllllll, not really, technically, it was a ""collision"" they could have easily shot it down , but this gives them some plausible deniability .

they knew what they were doing.

the last thing Russia wants is a war with the US , and The US doesnt want a real war with Russia , so its not gonna happen At this point anyway.

Well yeah? But they could have shot it down and they were well within their rights to do it. They did fly past it 19 times but the U.S. didn't change course. So they attempted to spray fuel on it and collided with it. I'll posted more on this today.

 

[kev74]

 

[holdover]

You sure that isn't just a fuel tank?

Nope, Im not sure. It could be. just caught my eye. 2 days prior to this ""Ukraine"" used a JDAM for first time.

 

[holdover]

I did a screenshot too and zoomed in.

Looks like a data sensor



There is a video taken from the drone that shows after the su27 pass by one of the prop blades is bent backwards

I wasnt sure what it was .