Black Sea Follies, or
Things That Go Bump in the Night
Russian jet collides with US drone in international airspace over Black Sea, official says
US European Command, US Air Forces in Europe call Russian pilots’ behavior ‘unsafe and unprofessional’
By Liz Friden , Timothy H.J. Nerozzi | Fox News
A Russian Su-27 fighter plane collided with a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, a U.S. defense official told Fox News.The jet in question was one of two Su-27s flying in tandem when the collision occurred in international airspace over international waters. The drone’s propeller was damaged, forcing the unmanned aerial vehicle to ditch in the Black Sea, west of Crimea, the U.S. defense official told Fox News.
The State Department is summoning Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Anatoly Antonov to express its “strong objections” to the intercept, spokesman Ned Price confirmed to reporters.
Another opportunity to excel for Joe’s Handlers on the Russian diplomacy front. Hard to play the aggrieved party after blowing up Russian national assets in the North Sea, so this should prove interesting. For the more literal-minded the term ‘Opportunity to Excel’ was a buzzword in certain circles for an impending train wreck. No plan has yet been voiced to recover the drone.
By us, anyway.
Category: Blue Skies, Government Incompetence, Russia
“The drone’s propeller was damaged”
And the Su-27 suffered a minor cosmetic scratch?
It’ll buff out.
A little Bondo and some paint and it is good as new.
They got Earl Scheib in Russia?
It was a sad day when they went under. As the low cost leader he kept prices low in the industry.
Any aircraft any color.
I thought that’s what Russian fighters were made of…
Vladamir Scheib “We will paint your Sickle and Hammer to match”…!!
New Russian Air Force Theme
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dy4HA3vUv2c
Beware the Idiots of March echo’s the halls of the District of China as the mushroom club chuckles in the corner looking forward to a dark summer.
FJB
Did the pilot purposefully bump the drone? If so, then it is a deliberate act.
Sadly, for the Russkies, it was probably accidental.
If it were deliberate, they’d have used a missile and be talkin’ serious trash about it now.
Maybe they thought it was a balloon and didn’t want to waste a half-million dollar missile on it.
The SU-27 has a 30mm cannon according to the specs I saw. They could have used that weapon.
But they probably decided on a “bumpex” so they can claim the collision was just an oopsie.
Could’ve used guns on KAL 007 and forced it down in ’83, but they went for the big kaboom.
Yeah, I think they wanted to get close and ended up getting too close. It was in the Black Sea next to where they’re stuck in a quagmire war with Ukraine (and a proxy-war with NATO for all intent at this point), so I can imagine they were a little perturbed.
Dumping fuel on the drone could be considered deliberate.
“I’m too close, I’m switching to guns,” the pilot should’ve quoted a certain movie.
Shots fired…
Someone’s going to lose that lovin’ feelin’
I’ll take pilot error for a thousand, Alex.
Good thing that the bad orange man was soundly defeated in the last presidential (s)election. Sure would have been bad for us, being as the bad orange man was going to get us involved in WWIII.
Ivan done FAFO. Reckon Big AF will swap drones for Migs…all day long.
FJB!
Don’t worry, when it kicks off it will be Trumps fault.
Everything bad is today.
We did lose a Global Hawk in the Strait of Hormuz during PDT’s presidency. He decided since no lives were lost and nobody was injured that we would just move on.
We’ll see what the idiot in the White House decides to do.
Keep in mind the Global Hawk is nearly size of a medium sized passenger plane and really expensive. But Trump had better style, and foreign policy.
“We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different [sites] when I asked, how many will die,” Trump wrote. “150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it, not proportionate to shooting down an unmanned drone. I am in no hurry, our Military is rebuilt, new, and ready to go, by far the best in the world. Sanctions are biting & more added last night. Iran can NEVER have Nuclear Weapons, not against the USA, and not against the WORLD!”
….six month later….
Iran vows to avenge Qassem Soleimani’s killing
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/1/3/three-years-on-iran-vows-revenge-for-qassem-soleimani
I must say I preferred Trump’s “Get them in our sweet time” policy as opposed to whatever knee jerk reaction the current in idiot in charge does.
Yup
Russia is saying they didn’t hit shit, they are too happy to pick the drone, US – Russia relations are at lowest point ever, stay out of our war or you are gonna be involved like it or not and Fucski Uncle Joseph Biden.
I wonder how difficult it would be to turn a Reaper into an aerial claymore. A little C-4, some buckshot, proximity fuse…
That would be a blatant act of war.
But I like your thinking.
I was thinking more along the lines of a passive defense. Ivan noses his MiG a wee bit too close, and there’s an earth-shattering kaboom. We could even make the system public knowledge, just to keep it sporting.
How you going to create plausible deniability if you throw it out there like that?
When Ivan gets shotgunned, we get to say “We fuckin Toldja. You fucked around and found out”.
Or just blame The Black Sea Triangle
Good to know that Russian fighter pilots are still able to get their ration of Vodka every morning.
It occurs to ol” Poe that a $32 Million drone is a pretty fair swap (for us) for an $11 Billion undersea pipeline… 😉
Now you can watch the video. They trail it about a half hour then scrap it with the bottom of the Russian jetI.
https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-03-16-23
I meant to write it shows the jet coming in hard and then start dumping fuel. It dumps fuel on the drone, the drone dies right after that and crashes.
P.S. Russkies refitting museum tanks: