Splash One: General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper Drone in the Black Sea

Editor's note: US media calling Russia's downing of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone (flying with transponders off) over the Black Sea as an "incident that demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional," demonstrates desperation. The two countries are at war. It was reported the Su-27 and the drone "collided." It was an intentional collision on the part of the Russian pilot. Rather than waste an expensive missile, the Russian pilots apparently dumped fuel on the drone to interfere with its flight and then one of the Russian pilots flew his Su-27 fighter into position where it hit the US MQ-9 drone's propeller causing the drone to go down in "international waters" in the Black Sea. That would be some rather great precision flying on the part of the Russian pilots. Or maybe the Russians did shoot it down who are tired of the US getting free ISR over Crimea? What would people expect the Russian's to do? A Tom Cruise Top Gun stunt in this proxy war against Russia? Well, maybe not to that extent but the Russians will attempt to recover the drone wreckage (the drone violated EEZ air space).

Breaking: First Russian SU27 vs Reaper Black Sea Footage Released:

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Source: The Guardian

Russian fighter jet collides with US drone causing it to crash into Black Sea

By Julian Borger and Pjotr Sauer — The Guardian March 14, 2023

A Russian fighter has collided with a US Reaper drone, forcing it down into the Black Sea, in what US forces called an "unsafe and unprofessional" intercept.

A US European Command statement said the collision happened just after 7am on Tuesday morning, when two Russian Su-27 fighter jets flew up to the MQ-9 Reaper drone over international waters west of Crimea. The statement said the Russian pilots sought to disrupt the US aircraft before the collision.

"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," the US statement said. "This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional."

One of the Russian fighters then struck the drone's propeller, "causing US forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters".

Please go to The Guardian to read more.

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Precision flying....is this drone the same drone as the drone in the video above?

Go for it, Graham. Care to lose any more $56.5 million drones? Graham talks big when between 10,000 and 11,000 Ukrainians soldiers are being killed and injured every month. Graham wouldn't happen to be invested in General Atomics would he?

The US has absolute no interest stopping the war in Ukraine:

Senator Lindsey Graham:

"I like the path we’re on,with U.S. weapons and money, Ukraine will fight Russia to the last person" pic.twitter.com/8NOK03qZRy

— Richard (@ricwe123) March 14, 202

News update for 17 March 2023 on the $56.6 million General Atomic MQ-9 Reaper drone that splashed into the Black Sea:

On the Downed US drone: You may not have seen this in the news but something interesting happened shortly after the incident - Romanian search and rescue helicopters operating with NATO badges, had attempted to approach the area where the American MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed in the… https://t.co/rnoVluDrQP pic.twitter.com/3I3hQUjN6V

— J. C. Okechukwu (@jcokechukwu) March 17, 2023