Originally published at: Watch the moment Russian jets brought down a US drone (video) | Boing Boing
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Will the Russians continue to lie about this? They had to have known there was video.
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Of course they will - lying is all Russia does well these days.
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“The generous Russians attempted mid-air refueling of a U.S. drone. But Biden refused their generous gift.”
–Tucker Carlson
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Russian Foreign Ministry response:
apparently, the way for the us to fly professionally and avoid accidents is to not fly in certain areas that Russia has already grabbed for itself.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters earlier that Russia declared certain areas of the Black Sea off-limits to any aerial traffic during the Ukraine conflict and suggested the US was trying to provoke an escalation through the surveillance flights.
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Forcing the pilot to ram another aircraft is the most Russian thing ever. When I was studying Visual Aircraft Recognition, we were told to aim at different parts of Soviet aircraft than American or French aircraft because whereas we focused on agility and evasion, they focused on building a flying tomb that the pilot could ride to their death.
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That is pretty amazing footage. Now the race is on to recover the debris from this.
I’m curious why the Sukhoi used a fuel dump to try to take down the drone. It is equipped with a 30mm cannon which seems like it would be perfect for this job, without needing to come into contact distance with the drone. Maybe the pilot thought he would have some deniability if there were no bullet holes in the drone, but he must have known that video from the drone is being recorded, so it’s strange to me. Could they have been flying without ammo in the cannon?
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Could be-- the Russians have undersupplied their invading hordes before. Bullets cost money and eat into the yachting budget.
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Watch the moment a Russian jet collided with an unmanned US drone
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No - they do it as badly as everything else they do.
The only difference is that they are proud of how badly they do lying!
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how much were the missiles we used to take out the balloons? i feel like the russians win this one ( and also are probably out of ammo )
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One of the things my eldest offspring told me, when he had a job of listening in on Russian and Chinese aircraft communications, was the very obvious difference in training. Way more hours in the air, and on the simulators. In emergency situations, he said, Chinese and Russian pilots get to a point where they begin to panic, and you can hear it in their voices and in the end-stage reactions to emergencies. American pilots, he said, are methodically working through checklists with ground control, right up until the end.
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I think it is to do with the comparison of actively shooting down a drone rather than harrying it by dropping fuel on it so it malfunctions or flying close so there is an air disturbance that causes it to lose control (unlikely). Ultimately there was a collision and that did for the drone.
If they say they flew close by to check on it and had to release fuel at that time then it was unfortunate the drone caught fire or malfunctioned and crashed. If they just plain shoot it down then as you say there is no deniability. Now we are at a half way house where they accidentally collided with the drone and that is perceived as worse that trying to make it crash and not as bad as shooting it down.
Had the collision been more serious and the Russian aircraft also crashed then they would be blaming the US for the way the drone moved into the flight path of the Russian aircraft. When did video evidence ever get in a way of a lie? Not the first time something like this has happened and won’t be the last.
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It is odd there is an “unprofessional” description being attached to this action as if we have some knowledge the pilot and the entire chain of command wasn’t very professionally following orders.
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They didn’t accidentally fly close to the drone, they were ordered to. The Russians don’t want to lose another warship and need to keep the US surveillance away the area. Possible the pilot was really good and was ordered to take out the drone any way possible and intentionally clipped it. Or more likely when trying to take out the drone by dumping fuel on it accidentally hit it.
I think they are professional but that does not mean that the chain of command and pilot don’t make mistakes or are good at what they do.
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It’s a common descriptor
It would be much easier if this was piloting jargon for “your aviating skills are nonexistent.”
but, even the pilots are occasionally confused.
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Ugh, that makes me so sad. My immediate thought when they first reported that the MiG stuck the drone was of the pilot. Reportedly he had to emergency land in Crimea, so hopefully he’s ok. I also read that it was a direct command from Putin. Seeing what he’s done with mass mobilizations of unequipped, untrained recruits sent to be slaughtered as well as forcing Bakhmut, which is of dubious strategic value, to be a flashpoint ostensibly to marginalize Wagner troops is just sickening.
I am so deeply grateful that I never had to put any of my training to actual use.
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Is that like the aviation equivalent of pissing on the kid you’re beating up?
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Biden hates Russian fuels! That’s why inflation! Buy NFT’s!
Oops, sorry. My comment generator was stuck in Twitter gremlin mode.
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