The Russians really wanted that drone.

[mtpockets]

No surprise, they would love to get their hands on it.


Here's a newly released video of the fuel dump by the SU-27.. It hasn't hit youtube yet so I couldn't embed



https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/202...tl-ldn-vpx.cnn

[OldFartTom]

No surprise, they would love to get their hands on it.


Here's a newly released video of the fuel dump by the SU-27.. It hasn't hit youtube yet so I couldn't embed



https://www.cnn.com/videos/world/202...tl-ldn-vpx.cnn

I heard that at the start of the incident and pleasantly surprised to see that in the news now.

Previously the Russians had claimed 12 nautical miles out from Crimea's coast as their territory and this was maybe? 45 miles offshore. If Russia planned this, they'd make sure a "oceanographic research ship" just happened to be in the area.

Oh.. guess what?? What are the chances eh?? By lucky coincidence after the "freak accident" caused by "American erratic flying" too close to the brave aviators of the Russian Airforce, there just happens to be several ships waiting there and on the scene now. Amazing coincidence.

Russian "research" ships have a lot of experience in much deeper water than this, pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge on seabed and marine life for the good of humanity, in locations like coincidentally near telecom cables and gas pipelines. The depth of Black sea is well within their operational capability

[mtpockets]

I heard that at the start of the incident and pleasantly surprised to see that in the news now.

Previously the Russians had claimed 12 nautical miles out from Crimea's coast as their territory and this was maybe? 45 miles offshore. If Russia planned this, they'd make sure a "oceanographic research ship" just happened to be in the area.

Oh.. guess what?? What are the chances eh?? By lucky coincidence after the "freak accident" caused by "American erratic flying" too close to the brave aviators of the Russian Airforce, there just happens to be several ships waiting there and on the scene now. Amazing coincidence.

Russian "research" ships have a lot of experience in much deeper water than this, pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge on seabed and marine life for the good of humanity, in locations like coincidentally near telecom cables and gas pipelines. The depth of Black sea is well within their operational capability

Yup lol.

Hopefully everything electronically has been wiped and the rest went into a million pieces when it hit the water and they have to pick it up with tweezers.


Back in the 80's I was stationed at an airbase near the ocean, whenever we had a major flying exercise there was always a Russian fishing boat nearby. Those fishing boats sure had a lot of antennas.

[OldFartTom]

Yup lol.

Hopefully everything electronically has been wiped and the rest went into a million pieces when it hit the water and they have to pick it up with tweezers.


Back in the 80's I was stationed at an airbase near the ocean, whenever we had a major flying exercise there was always a Russian fishing boat nearby. Those fishing boats sure had a lot of antennas.

*Hopefully* if it was working a SIGINT role, it'd have some physical safeguards too beyond other variants, to blow/thermite anything particularly sensitive it before hitting the water, since there's footage released we can assume it was still communicating during the Russians close passes and terminal descent

If it had been unplanned (sadly it has every appearance of planned event...) the drone might have gathered data on maybe flankers flying without Luneburg lens or any real gems like that. (I hear they're fairly radar-visible from behind), still it might have picked up something interesting. For all I know the incident could end up as being interesting to the US as the Russians. Must be for Russian internal morale and propaganda as well as intelligence.

[mtpockets]

[mtpockets]

Russian fighter pilots involved in an incident with a U.S. drone that resulted in its crash will be given state awards, the Defense Ministry said, appearing to signal Moscow's plan to adopt a more aggressive stance toward future U.S. surveillance flights.

[OldFartTom]

They're perfectly entitled to shoot down a surveillance drone... IF it's over their territory, but international waters/airspace is a different issue.

One big problem is that the convention is 12 nautical miles is international waters (and air) and the drone was, so we're told 56 nautical miles from Crimea. The friction is that Russia has claimed a much much larger area of the black sea, up to 200 nautical miles since it annexed Crimea in 2014.

The drone was well inside what Russia claims is their airspace and remember they don't respect international law or convention. They believe they're justified and the drone was intruding, based on their insanely large territorial claim

Take a look about this interesting review (link below) about... No suprise... OIL prospecting in the Black Sea prior to invasion. In particular the map on p7 which maps Russia claimed territory. Suddenly the size and shape of Russia's claimed sea and air looks suspiciously the same as Ukraine's Black Sea oil prospects.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...u1mdIULu5f07H5

[weiss1967]

it was clearly an accident.


Another drone, which is in the air already, is a bigger much heavier unit, 200-million a piece, and guess what, it is tracked much further south. Lesson learned I guess. Stay away from new drivers.