The downing of the U.S. MQ-9 drone on Tuesday marks the first direct U.S.-Russian confrontation since the start of the Ukraine war, aggravating already sour relations between Washington and Moscow.
A video by the Pentagon on Thursday showed a Russian Su-27 fighter jet flying very close to a drone and dropping fuel very near to it in "an apparent effort to damage the American aircraft as it flew," according to U.S. authorities.
The 36-foot (11 m) long drone, as per U.S. Military, was engaged in a surveillance and reconnaissance operation to aid Ukraine's defense against Russia.
MQ-9 Reaper was caught by a pair of Russian Su-27 flanker fighters, who then made two extremely close approaches.
The episode lasted more than 30 minutes, according to The Guardian. During that time, the planes flew over the drone 19 times and splashed jet fuel on their final three to four flybys.
The video showed the loss of the video feed following another Russian jet maneuver, which the Military contended was caused by a Russian fighter slamming the drone.
ProfessorDerp22 on March 19th, 2023 at 15:23 UTC »
They’ve been deploying a Global Hawk (FORTE11) over the Black Sea for months. You can commonly find it patrolling publicly on FlightRadar
TipperOfTheFedora on March 19th, 2023 at 14:50 UTC »
Hmm it sounds like you don’t like us looking at this particular area how about we send a bigger one to see what’s up
vacuous_comment on March 19th, 2023 at 13:45 UTC »
This is really what drones are for, having a presence without risking a pilot.
Also having a reallllly long loitering presence.