The U.S. military released footage proving the Russians lied about what happened over the Black Sea the other day when a US Reaper drone went down. The Pentagon released a video of the encounter between two Russian fighter jet pilots and the U.S. drone this morning.
According to The Washington Examiner, in the video below you see: “The video is from a camera on the MQ-9 Reaper drone pointed backward toward its tail and the drone’s propeller, which is actively turning at the beginning of the clip. A Russian Su-27 approached the rear of the drone and began to release fuel as it passed the unmanned drone. The feed is briefly disrupted as the Russian fighter jet passed over the drone while continuing to release fuel. When it comes back seconds later, the propeller was visible and appeared undamaged.
“A Russian jet came back for another approach, once again releasing fuel as it got closer to the drone. This time, however, as the Russian jet got close, the video feed cut out for 60 seconds, EUCOM said, which occurred following impact. Once the camera resumed its video feed, the propeller appears damaged.”
“It probably broke up, probably not a lot to recover, frankly,” said Gen. Mark Milley.
“As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etc., as normal we would take, and we did take, mitigating measures.
“So we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value.”
Lara Seligman, Pentagon reporter for Politico said at the time: “This morning, a Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of a U.S. MQ-9 drone, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters, according to @US_EUCOM
“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. This incident demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.
“This “follows a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting w/ U.S. & Allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea.
“These aggressive actions by Russian aircrew are dangerous & could lead to miscalculation & unintended escalation.”
JUST IN – U.S. releases a video showing the collision of the Russian fighter jet with the MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea.pic.twitter.com/MHuGIUkxyL
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 16, 2023
BREAKING: U.S. military releases dramatic declassified video taken by MQ-9 Reaper drone that shows the moment that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with it after attempting to spray the drone with jet fuel. https://t.co/XGoVQN7ppJ pic.twitter.com/X9vH6qtFGf
— ABC News (@ABC) March 16, 2023
