SEE IT: U.S. Releases Footage Claiming to Show Russian Fighter Down Drone
The incident led to a phone call between top U.S. and Russian military officials
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Do you see a collision?
The Pentagon released footage on Thursday of what it identified as the incident over the Black Sea that resulted in the crash of a U.S. Reaper drone after it was allegedly stuck by a Russian fighter jet.
The U.S. said the video shows the Russian Su-27 perform a close-range pass while dumping fuel. CBS News said: “The camera view is lost briefly after the apparent collision but it comes back to show what the Air Force said was damage to the propeller from the strike.”
Russia has disputed the Pentagon’s claim that the jet struck the drone and said the drone stalled after executing a dangerous maneuver. Sergey Shoigu, the defense minister, said the cause of the incident was “the drone’s incursion into a zone, which the Russian military had declared off-limits due to the ongoing special military operation in Ukraine,” RT, the Russian news outlet, reported.
The U.S. said MQ-9 Reaper drone that was conducting “routine operations” in international airspace over the Black Sea was clipped by a Russian fighter jet and crashed in the Black Sea.
Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, told reporters that two Russian Su-27s harassed the drone before the collision by dumping fuel on the drone and flying in an “unsound and unprofessional manner.”
How valuable the drone would be for Russia to retrieve is unclear, Mark F. Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) International Security Program, told The Trends Journal.
He called the Reaper a “moderately valuable” for the Russians, who would likely reverse-engineer the aircraft to learn its vulnerabilities to develop new defense systems and countermeasures.
The State Department referred the Trends Journal to the Pentagon. The Defense Department did not immediately respond to an email.
TRENDPOST: The U.S. continues to provoke Russia into war.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who is likely scared of his own shadow, said Russia should be held accountable and the U.S. should start shooting down Russian planes.
He said the message to Russia should be: If you ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters, your airplane will be shot down.
“What would Ronald Reagan do right now? He would start shooting Russian planes down if they were threatening our assets,” he said, according to The Daily Beast.
Anatoly Antonov, the Russian diplomat to the U.S., responded, “An armed clash between Russia and the United States would be radically different from a proxy war that the Americans wage remotely against us in Ukraine,” Antonov warned. Is the Capitol ready to expose American citizens and the international community to the risk of all-out nuclear war? Answer, dear senator!” according to The Daily Beast.
Well, I for one am glad they're still talking after all the bs.
9/11 taught us Bollywood works best in court of public opinion