Zach Crawford
The European Command of the US Armed Forces released a video of the collision between a US reconnaissance drone and a Russian fighter jet over the Black Sea on Tuesday. CNN reported that it had reported that the video had been declassified He describes the decisive moments of the mid-air encounter, which the Pentagon says lasted 30-40 minutes. The video shows the MQ-9 Reaper drone’s camera pointing back in its tail as the drone’s rear-mounted propeller rotates. Then a Russian Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jet was shown approaching. As it approaches, CNN reports, the Russian fighter dumps fuel as it intercepts the American drone. In another part of the footage, the Russian jet makes another pass. As he approaches, he dumps fuel again. Video of the drone then cuts to where the Russian fighter collides with the MQ-9 Reaper, damaging the propeller and forcing the US to shoot the drone down in the Black Sea. Russia has denied a collision. When the camera comes back online in the cut scene, the view is pointed back again and the prop is shown to be impact damaged. With the propeller damaged, the drone operators glided the plane like a glider as it descended over the Black Sea, bringing it down over international waters southwest of Crimea.
Ansa agency
‘They were preparing to sabotage arms transfers to Ukraine’ (ANSA)
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Laurence Malcom
