Posted on 03/15/2023 6:18:29 AM PDT by McGruff
U.S. military command officials said Tuesday that a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on a U.S. drone over the Black Sea, clipped the drone's propeller and forced it into the water.
Russia is now denying that the aircraft touched one another, and accusing the U.S. of unnecessarily escalating the issue.
"We assume that the United States will refrain from further speculation in the media and stop flights near Russian borders,"said Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov on Wednesday.
He claimed that the drone crashed after undertaking "sharp maneuvers," Reuters reports.
He later wrote on his Telegram channel, "We consider any action with the use of U.S. weaponry as openly hostile."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Russia is probably associating this drone, just off it’s border, with the 100 billion dollars of military “aid” sent to the US backed former state of Ukraine.
#de-dollarization
How do you dump fuel on a drone?
So, I wonder how they would react to us taking out their flights to Alaska or around Scotland.
[Just out from Moon of Alabama]
New Bakhmut Report: High Casualties - Low Morale - Russian Tactics
Last week I explained why Bakhmut is falling. The piece included long excerpts from a piece published by Kyiv Independent. The reporter had talked with soldiers who had been at the Bakhmut front. Their description of the situation there was devastating.
Now a different reporter for Kyiv Independent has a somewhat similar report:
[rest at MoA link]
https://www.moonofalabama.org/2023/03/new-bakhmut-report-high-casualties-low-morale-russian-tactics.html
According to DC, the Russians dumped fuel (maybe a pilot had a bucket of gas in the cockpit), then rammed the drone’s prop. Here’s the evil Putin propaganda from the KGB (Tass). Which sounds more plausible?
On the morning of March 14, the United States’ MQ-9 Reaper aerial vehicle lost control and crashed over the Black Sea following sharp maneuvering. The Russian Defense Ministry stated that Russian fighter jets did not use airborne weapons or make contact with the drone. The Pentagon, in turn, said that the aerial vehicle had been on a reconnaissance mission, Izvestia writes.
The five-ton MQ-9 Reaper, designed to replace the MQ-1 Predator, is considered to be the United States’ most multifunctional drone. These vehicles have turboprop engines that allow them to reach speeds of more than 400 km/h and altitudes of 13,000 meters, as well as stay in the air for 24 hours. These are reconnaissance and strike unmanned aerial vehicles that can not only conduct reconnaissance but are also capable of carrying an entire arsenal of missiles and bombs, including Hellfire missiles, GBU-12 Paveway II aerial laser-guided bombs and GBU-38 satellite-guided bombs. There are also plans to equip the drones with air-to-air missiles. The drones will be able to use them not only to defend themselves but also to attack other aerial vehicles.
Military historian Dmitry Boltenkov points out that even before the start of its special military operation, Russia reacted quite aggressively to the activities of NATO aircraft near Crimea. However, such behavior was entirely justified because the North Atlantic Alliance’s aerial vehicles sometimes acted in a very provocative manner.
“Suffice to remember that the actions of a US Artemis surveillance aircraft nearly caused a plane crash over the Black Sea two years ago,” the expert noted. “Now, the situation has only escalated. US drones keep hanging around Crimea. They definitely conduct reconnaissance in Kiev’s interests. It’s enough to recall that a NATO reconnaissance aircraft hovered in the sky every time Crimea came under attack,” Boltenkov emphasized.
The communist Biden Regime and the Republicant neocons are Jonesing in for World War III so we will probably find out.
Russians supposedly flew several times under and then in front of the drone for a total of 30 minutes.
That could very well be the reason the drone was being flown erratically and crashed into the sea. The point the Russians make is, what would the Pentagon do if these were similar Russian drones hovering off Long Island or Tampa?
Most combat a/c and many commercial a/c have a dump valve they can open. Usually its because max take-off weight exceeds max landing weight, and if you have an emergency before you burn down to max landing weight, you may need to dump the fuel to get to max landing weight.
If it was in international airspace, we would just monitor it.
“The communist Biden Regime and the Republicant neocons are Jonesing in for World War III so we will probably find out.”
The Biden administration is doing everything it can to take money out of the US economy and send it to their pals at the WEF. The Ukraine’s were just the bankers.
We’ll just “piss fuel on them.”
Although, I wonder if that aircraft was simply leaking fuel. Knowing how well Russians maintain their equipment, it wouldn’t shock me.
I bet jet wash plays hell with a small drone especially when its pilot is in a control room with somewhat limited visual SA.
Russian Tu-95 recon/bomber aircraft routinely fly close to Long Island and have even overflown Florida. Henceforth they should be shot down as hostiles.
Most aircraft can dump fuel if needed. This is nothing new.
This drone incident is the type of thing that escalates. Our government is filled with woke idiots that would like nothing better to escalate this into WWIII on behalf of the military industrial complex. Our woke generals don’t have a frickin’ clue as how to win a war, but they specialize in starting them.
We still have no national interest in Ukraine. That’s zero interest. That drone was wasting tax dollars by being there and making America weaker. Every dollar we waste on Ukraine, foreign assistance of all kinds, every dumb ass climate change idea, green energy, and dozens of other socialist programs brings America closer to financial collapse and weakens us when confronted with our real adversaries.
You can’t focus on woke and virtue signaling and do your real job.
Yeah, right! I call complete and total BS on that ridiculous answer. Man, show some self respect. Just monitor it! That’s rich! We’re spending nearly a billion a day on Uke corruption and aggressively escalating to WWIII 5000 miles away over four pint sized oblasts because a revanchist Soviet Union is attacking us but an armed, intelligence drone loitering just off DC would be “monitored”. You need to work with a rim shot.
Yes well Russian aircraft loitering over these areas aren’t assisting china’s invasion of Canada either. If they were they’d be downed.
—> So, I wonder how they would react to us taking out their flights to Alaska or around Scotland.
If unmanned drones, I think fair game.
Very smart of Russia.
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