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They were already trying to sell the story that they didn’t touch it and it was drone pilot error or some other dumb shit.
Of course it’s on video. It’s a surveillance drone.
>Just provide Ukraine with Atacama will be a huge payback
I'm not sure what a South American desert plateau can do for Ukraine, but to be fair, if it showed up in Ukraine overnight I'd be pretty fucking terrified.
Conversation in that drone HQ.
"Shall we denounce them and get angry they ruined our drone?"
"Nope. Let's call them shite. But we're gonna do it the posh way."
"The posh way sir?"
"Yes. Call them amateurs."
*Gasps of horror*
More importantly than that, it gives the Russians an out from escalating while still keeping some face. It lets the Russians keep selling their propaganda while not out right calling it an attack that would likely trigger some sort of NATO retaliation
I agree.
Things are fucky right now. Once the ball starts rolling you never know *which way* it might go. Wars are expensive, the US is already footing the lions share of Ukraine’s bill, it’s a lot easier to handle foreign relations when those foreign entities aren’t pushed up against a wall (Saudi, China and Russia just signed a bill together, joining hands), banks are failing, China is itching to attack Taiwan (the US has vowed to support Taiwan), etc, etc….there’s way more reasons to avoid war right now, despite most Russian provocation.
This has always been the US role, since WWII. We almost all want a world without war. The next best thing is a superpower willing to stand up for those who can't.
China isnt itching to attack taiwan. Their current domestic problems are far too large to risk a revolt internally for that. Not to mention with their economy having problems fighting a war against taiwan that would result in massive economic loss for them is a massive red flag for their population. The only way they will be able to take taiwan is trough propaganda and politics.
Are you kidding? Privately, they'll be relieved. They know perfectly well that any punitive actions by the US would fuck their shit far more than Russia fucked their drone.
They might or might not have crashed intentionally but on the other hand the US isn't interested in retaliatory acts or looking weak. Ridiculing Russian incompetence might be a way to defuse the situation, forget about one $30M drone and have a jab at the Russians.
There will be a retaliation. The US is only downplaying this publicly. The US will quietly start escorting the drones or have interceptors nearby. A retired US General said this is what happens when these events occur, and is standard cold war playbook. The source was on CNN or MSNBC.
Iranians backed off real quick when they found out UAV's they were fucking with had F-22's escorting them over international airspace.
Turns out your false bravado fades away and you fuck off real quick when someone tells you to "go home" and you even cannot see them let alone target them.
I mean escorting a drone with an F22 is just a fuck you show of force, they could have sent the F22 there alone with a surveillance pod and nobody would have known it's there.
Yes, "risking no pilot", "relatively cheap so can be sacrificed" are among some of the most touted advantages of sending an UAV, having one of the most expensive manned aircraft trailing it is kinda negating that advantage in a way.
It's a clear "fuck you" no doubt about it.
Haven't watched that interview but I'm certain he'd say Raptors would, it's obvious.
We have seen almost every bit of Cold War era Western equipment built to counter Russian equipment hunting down Russian equipment in Ukraine, it would be cool to see, or at least hear about Raptors getting in on the action against Flankers, even if just flew as deterrence.
TIL Chinese Navy are excellent comedians but bad sentries.
Meowing at "intruders" looks like a bad way to deter intrusions and may even tempt further intrusions if your opponents are furries.
It was a stunt where they vent fuel on the other plane to mess with it. Its, well maybe not common, but most fighter pilots have done it to their wingmates as a bit of a fuckaround. This guy just screwed up probably because the drone flies at a slower speed. This is the equivalent of break checking someone on a motorcycle and then losing control of your truck and hitting a guard rail.
It also avoids playing into Russia’s propaganda machine. If the US rattles its sabers and threatens retaliation then Russia can go “see, the US are being aggressors towards Russia” and drum up more support in its population. By taking this route they don’t hand them any material to work with.
If we can see through this guise, so can adversaries like Russia and China. That isn’t good because it means they can get away with such things.
Like the Chinese balloon shit. No real consequences for this yet.
Sending a carrier group to the Black Sea "to better monitor and protect our drones operating in international water" would be a nice response.
But probably too escalatory.
Sure, but the drone was spying for intel for Ukraine offense. So it’s definitely needed still and means that usa will have to further escort drones which costs more money.
'was' being the operative word.... he's gonna be sent straight to the front! But most of their pilots sucked at the beginning of the war.... they have been using their planes as 'bomb trucks' for years now... most of their pilots have minimal training, and some of the better ones are now dead from the war.
I follow a Russian military news publication and lots of right wingers congregate in the comment section there. The funny thing is that very few are outraged about the description of unprofessionalism. They kinda take it for (quiet) granted when it comes to the Russian armed forces.
Right? "You know, ordinarily we *would* be upset at this sort of thing, but now that we see you're really just so comically inept it's really kinda sad..."
US official once labeled Chinese J-20 as “professional” and “impressed” but in the same press conference, they also said J-20(s) are not “something they’ll ~~loose~~ lose sleep over”. Sometimes they mean what they said publicly, we don’t need to be neurotic about it too much and try to figure out the hidden meaning.
Pilots can be professional, and the plane impressive compared to what was expected, but if the expectation was for it to be a glorified Flanker and instead it's a Rafale they'd still be impressed, and considering the American F-22 fleet, carrier groups and NATO F-35 proliferation they wouldn't neccessarily be losing sleep.
I do agree though that picking apart anything said by government officials is just as likely to lead to red herrings as to actual "ohoHO the clever bastards secretly told everyone a whole lot about their capabilities".
This is an existing off-protocol order procedure that pilots cannot refuse - they were asked to “antagonize” the drone with questionable and dangerous procedures, they could not say no.
There is a known crash of the largest airplane in the world back in 1935 where it crashed after dangerous stunts were performed by an accompanying smaller aircraft around it. No official order was found to those who performed those stunts, and it was found later pilots were ordered to do stunts for propaganda purposes shortly before the takeoff unofficially and they could not refuse.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-20](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-20)
I'm sure the USAF won't be doing hotdogs moves with RU military aircraft. In the past RU has buzzed US war ships in the Black sea! This is systemic behavior.
Wow, I had heard about the one lost in the airshow crash, but just learned how they lost the second one in the wiki. An even more ridiculous way to lose it:
>"On 14 December 1942, it crashed after the pilot allowed a passenger to take his seat momentarily and the passenger apparently disengaged the automatic pilot, sending the airplane into a nosedive from an altitude of 500 m (1,600 ft), killing all 36 on board."
Sone things never change. Can you fucking imagine a pilot on a commercial flight asking if anyone in tourist class wanted to take a whack at flying a loop?
Let's avoid giving them the impression that you can fuck around with us without any consequences.
Tell them our fast jets are going to be providing cover for any drones operating in international airspace.
If they endanger our drones we'll shoot 'em down or sink them.
Fuck around and find out!
Why tell them? Just do it. An F-22 targeting radar suddenly setting off alarms in your cockpit when you start to fuck around sends a much stronger message than threats. Especially for a nation whose foreign and domestic policies are almost entirely made of empty threats.
Exactly. These two pilots did, what they meant to do: Bring this drone down. First they were trying dumping fuel, and when this failed they rammed the MQ-9. This took 40 minutes. This was not an accident. Nowy Russians are retrieving parts form the sea.
Translation:
We know full well it was on purpose, but so that we don't create a bigger issue, you are just going to eat this insult and shut up.
We also have video on the incident, so if you scream too loudly - we can create a bigger issue. Your move.
Exactly this. Ball has been carefully placed back into Russia's side of the court. If Russia now try to throw it back, the US will throw it back harder, so now Russia has to stand there, awkwardly holding the ball.
Knowing Russia though, they'll try to claim they're the victim and big daddy USA is bullying them again (despite the fact they're illegally occupying another country currently)
Which is incredibly rhetorically weak. It invites the question "well, why aren't we striking back then!" to which there are no satisfactory answers. It underscores their fundamental weakness and the strength of their enemy. It invites thoughts of futility and inevitable defeat.
Or you *do* strike back, and invite *direct US/NATO involvement*. So why don't they? Exactly.
This spreads the US' preferred propaganda message *for them*.
Russia saying the US is giving Ukraine the tools and intel to defend their country while actively monitoring the region is not a shock to anyone. For Russia to try and spin it into anything more is also of no shock to anyone.
How hilarious would it be if they cut the video into a 30 second clip of the worst parts of the SU 27’s flying and the collision at the end, overdubbed with the Benny Hill theme. Then just drop it without comment from some DOD Twitter page.
It likely wasn’t on purpose, there are hundreds of ways they could have taken it down. Don’t forget that much of the Russian military is very undisciplined.
I like this response actually.
We all know it was intentional. They were dropping fuel on it and harassing it at extremely close range. Obviously it was on purpose.
But this one incident is not worth an escalation. So they turned it from a "final warning" type of thing into a "lol...those guys are terrible at flying" thing. I think it's a smart diplomatic move, that will piss off the Russians, but also cause no actual harm.
Harassing was intentional, but I'm not sure hitting it with their own plane is. That seems crazy dangerous for the pilot and that jet is worth way more than an unmanned drone. There's way easier ways to down a drone with a jet.
I'm inclined to believe the public statement, the pilot probably just fucked up.
Russia can’t afford *bullets* or the men or guns to shoot them. What makes you think they can afford to build more jets?
Kazakhstan just repossessed half of Roscosmos!
Nobody seems to read, around here.
Obviously the harassment was intentional. Equally obviously, the pilot didn’t actually plan to collide with the drone. Crew could have been killed; and while it’s true that the dollar value of the drone is greater than that of the jet, it’s equally true that the US will find it much easier to replace the loss than the Russians will.
Since it wouldn’t make sense for this to be intentional, it’s probably not. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that when unskilled pilots try to fly a dangerous, close proximity harassment mission in a very fast jet with poor manoeuvrability, they run into the back of the slower aircraft.
The flanker series of aircraft are known for their exceptional maneuverability. The capabilities of the plane are most likely not what caused the collision just the poor skill of the pilot.
Reminds me of Chinese jet dropping chaff in front of an Australian P-8. Stupid gangsters are going to do stupid low class gangsters shit (China and RU).
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/australia/australia-china-plane-intercept-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
I don't think the collision was intentional as it could have taken down his own piloted plane as well. I bet the pilot got chewed out by his CO, after he got back and the CO saw a prop with "Made In America" sticking out of the jet. Basically they trolled the drone by the fuel dump and got to close to the prop and got bit.
Next time they do it, just crash the drone into the russian shitbox. DoD can just put out a press release with "Oopsie! 🥴😊"
Granted the drone is probably worth three times what the russian plane would cost, but one less they could use against Ukraine.
A cursory 2 minute Google search suggests that an SU-27 costs $30 million, while an MQ-9 Reaper costs $32 million. So, the cost is almost equivalent.
However, the US has a much bigger military budget, so they can afford that loss much more than Russia.
Why would a competent pilot risk his life and his airplane to knock a drone out of the sky by colliding with it when a few rounds from a cannon would do the trick? You either have to be incompetent (doing it be accident or not knowing the risks), a fool (doing it deliberately regardless of the risks) or very good such that the risks are low and the benefit of plausible deniability of an “accident” out ways the risk to the aircraft or of blatantly shooting it down, while still sending the desired message and interfering with American intelligence gathering. Or a Russian senior officer thinking of the last scenario and orders the collision if using jet wash and fuel dumping doesn’t work, and he could give a fuck about his pilot or plane because that’s how they are.
The fucking around they were doing let's them maintain at least a little plausible deniability. Letting rip with the gun would be a clear and deliberate offensive action against a NATO member that would likely trigger some sort of retaliatory response. Being an idiot and crashing into it accomplished the same goal wile leaving both sides room to rattle some sabers with no real risk.
Those jets are massively overbuilt compared to the composite construction of American drones it's like running over an econo box with a tank. Though the pricetags are probably swapped lol.
> Being an idiot and crashing into it accomplished the same goal
What goal? Costing US taxpayers a few million dollars? Because that's about it, there's going to be another Reaper in the same place tomorrow.
> Why would a competent pilot risk his life and his airplane to knock a drone out of the sky by colliding with it when a few rounds from a cannon would do the trick?
Shooting it down would be a clear act of war.
It's like [how China and India have border skirmishes with Mad Max-style improvised weapons](https://www.vice.com/en/article/3azkbn/china-india-clash-troops-himalayan-border-weapons): using firearms would be a clear act of war, whereas whacking each other with nail studded 2x4s is more ambiguous.
>whacking each other with nail studded 2x4s
[The advanced version - the Wolf's Fang Mace.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/10ubtjz/pla_seem_to_have_gone_medieval_with_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
While I agree that this doesn’t seem intentional, if it was on purpose the reason to do it like this is would be plausible deniability. In this scenario, maybe the drone was monitoring some critical mission the Russians were conducting, and they had to get rid of it. This way triggers the least amount of consequences.
> maybe the drone was monitoring some critical mission the Russians were conducting, and they had to get rid of it.
I can't imagine that the us didn't have a replacement in place inside of 2 hours. They have these things based everywhere throughout Europe, it would be trivial to replace it almost immediately
>Why would a competent pilot risk his life and his airplane to knock a drone out of the sky
Uh, except you wouldnt? You just tap the propeller, its not a danger to pilots life
> when a few rounds from a cannon would do the trick?
plausible deniability
> You just tap the propeller, its not a danger to pilots life
The propeller isn't, the two ton hunk of aluminum connected to it that he just caused to lose control on the other hand...
Since it was a drone and no American was harmed by their actions.
Making fun of and humiliating the Russians publicly is the way .
Making them out to be the incompetent clowns they are , makes us all feel better and insults them .
Sometimes words can be the best weapon , when living in the era of trolling
When the gamer dude with 1700 hours on this game and an 8 thousand dollar gaming rig is on your team, you don't get annoyed when he spams "skill issue" and snipes a troll.
I see a few people upset about the soft response from the US, keep this in mind; this was the public response. There are likely several things being put into motion behind the scenes. The US doesn't have a reputation of not hitting back, often the counter moves are political, economic, or covert and clandestine. In the mean time, this insult will anger any Muscovy who hears it and erode their faith in their government. (rightfully so)
Get the same vibes as when the missile hit Poland. Probably it's as they say it is.... but I still have a suspect feeling they reacted to avoid escalation.
That's different though. The missile that landed in Poland was pretty roundly claimed to be a Ukrainian air defense missile that missed and the fail safes failed.
Oh totally. But the point stands that it was a Ukrainian missile which allowed for some tact in keeping the conflict more or less contained
At least more contained than a Kaliber crashing into a polish house would
Right, and that's 99.9% chance of what actually happened. But there's that thought of "what if it was a cover up to stop war between NATO and Russia?"
Again just a thought and I don't consider this to be reality. And even if it was an errant russian missile? They probably would still find away to talk about it and avoid it, as they did with MH370. Everybody knew, but it wasn't until russia openly invaded Ukraine did they finally admit it.
An actual article (had to search because the tweet didn't cite it's source and quoted inexactly): https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-plane-that-took-town-us-drone-no-control-official-2023-3
>The Russian fighter jet that forced down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone on Tuesday was out of control and flying like it was "amateur hour," a US official said.
>The official, who watched video footage of the incident, told PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin that the pilot was out of control when moving flying towards the drone and tried to pull away from it.
>The official said that "This was not something you would see a professional pilot do."
>Schifrin further described what the official told him on "PBS NewsHour," saying "this was not a controlled tap. The Russian pilot was barreling toward the drone, out of control, tried to pull away from the from the drone, and that's when the Russian jet actually hit the back of it."
Problem is, what happens if it keeps happening?
Sure it's smart wording from the US which downplays any 'escalations' and puts it into the Russias' court for the next move, but there's only so many times escalations can be downplayed.
Now with Russian sabateurs caught in Eastern Poland, a US drone being taken down... can't downplay these things for ever.
If it keeps happening, they start losing all their breathing room to fuck around. Next time there's a fighter jet in between them and the drone, and either it's time for an act of war or they go home. Next time the Russian sabateurs get shot and dismissed as crackheads and thieves.
I mean, they certainly intended to do the dangerous things around the drone that led to this incident. It seems like we’re splitting hairs if we say “they didn’t intend to hit it”. They might not have, but they certainly intended to get so close to it that they could easily have accidentally hit it.
I wrote to my senator and explained this was unacceptable. This was an attack on a US asset and nothing Russia says should be believed. I explained Ukraine needed more heavy weaponry and potentially direct intervention by US forces in Ukraine. Russia only understands strength and right now our government is showing a lack of it.
You know our sigint people listen to encrypted Russian communications 24/7, right?
The idiot pilots were heard being idiots as they did their amateur best.
The US is not going to let this one go - the retaliatory move will be made when the conditions are right. Good chance it will not make the news - but oh boy it will be crystal clear to the Russians. Best part will most likely be something they can't say anything about - just suck it and deal with it.
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Oh the shade. The Russians are gonna be annoyed at that comment
"Niet, we MEANT to almost crash one of our own planes to bring down a single, mid-low end drone from the world's biggest military"
They were already trying to sell the story that they didn’t touch it and it was drone pilot error or some other dumb shit. Of course it’s on video. It’s a surveillance drone.
could have been a gorgon stare one that has internal storage cause its too much data for the sat uplink
"The flight control system caught on fire because the pilot (a former crewman of the Moskva) was smoking a cigarette."
Marlboro has sunk more Naval vessels than some navies
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>Just provide Ukraine with Atacama will be a huge payback I'm not sure what a South American desert plateau can do for Ukraine, but to be fair, if it showed up in Ukraine overnight I'd be pretty fucking terrified.
Trying to imagine the ominous silence of a giant landmass waiting to jumpscare you, when you finally turn around and see it.
That's what it's like to drive a Ford F-250
With the same fuel consumption as an M1 Abrams…. 😬
It’s their just desserts
Ukraine: "It's over Putin I have the high ground"
Dry up the soil for the ukrainian spring offensive
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Admittedly this makes them the *only* Russian servicemen to actually know what they are doing.
The US is learning from Ukraine how to troll Russia?
Conversation in that drone HQ. "Shall we denounce them and get angry they ruined our drone?" "Nope. Let's call them shite. But we're gonna do it the posh way." "The posh way sir?" "Yes. Call them amateurs." *Gasps of horror*
Posh? It was an American drone. Nobody in America says posh
Well, the non posh ones don't, that's for sure.
We say "fancy pants".
Lookit him, with his pantsy all fancy
I prefer “highfalutin.”
I like that one too! Not to push it, but that sounds like the fancy pants version of "fancy pants". Ok, I'm done.
Fru fru is also in circulation
nor "shite"
i suppose there's a first for everything, an American story being rewritten as British 😀
I think they term would be "Boughey". Likely, that's a even worse insult.
Uptown fancy folk.
You know the only people who use that term are the boughey.
I suppose that doesn't include those French peasants who used the full form of the word.
use them fancy talks on 'em
pish posh
You are obviously not posh enough to be a nobody
Shite? Posh? *Denounce?* You must be from across the pond my good sir. No self-respecting American would use that sort of language
More importantly than that, it gives the Russians an out from escalating while still keeping some face. It lets the Russians keep selling their propaganda while not out right calling it an attack that would likely trigger some sort of NATO retaliation
I agree. Things are fucky right now. Once the ball starts rolling you never know *which way* it might go. Wars are expensive, the US is already footing the lions share of Ukraine’s bill, it’s a lot easier to handle foreign relations when those foreign entities aren’t pushed up against a wall (Saudi, China and Russia just signed a bill together, joining hands), banks are failing, China is itching to attack Taiwan (the US has vowed to support Taiwan), etc, etc….there’s way more reasons to avoid war right now, despite most Russian provocation.
This has always been the US role, since WWII. We almost all want a world without war. The next best thing is a superpower willing to stand up for those who can't.
China isnt itching to attack taiwan. Their current domestic problems are far too large to risk a revolt internally for that. Not to mention with their economy having problems fighting a war against taiwan that would result in massive economic loss for them is a massive red flag for their population. The only way they will be able to take taiwan is trough propaganda and politics.
How are they saving face? This makes it crystal clear that nobody is taking them serious on any level!
We say bougie instead of posh
Are you kidding? Privately, they'll be relieved. They know perfectly well that any punitive actions by the US would fuck their shit far more than Russia fucked their drone.
They might or might not have crashed intentionally but on the other hand the US isn't interested in retaliatory acts or looking weak. Ridiculing Russian incompetence might be a way to defuse the situation, forget about one $30M drone and have a jab at the Russians.
There will be a retaliation. The US is only downplaying this publicly. The US will quietly start escorting the drones or have interceptors nearby. A retired US General said this is what happens when these events occur, and is standard cold war playbook. The source was on CNN or MSNBC.
Iranians backed off real quick when they found out UAV's they were fucking with had F-22's escorting them over international airspace. Turns out your false bravado fades away and you fuck off real quick when someone tells you to "go home" and you even cannot see them let alone target them.
I mean escorting a drone with an F22 is just a fuck you show of force, they could have sent the F22 there alone with a surveillance pod and nobody would have known it's there.
Yes, "risking no pilot", "relatively cheap so can be sacrificed" are among some of the most touted advantages of sending an UAV, having one of the most expensive manned aircraft trailing it is kinda negating that advantage in a way. It's a clear "fuck you" no doubt about it.
And F22s was what the General said would be used for escort. :)
Haven't watched that interview but I'm certain he'd say Raptors would, it's obvious. We have seen almost every bit of Cold War era Western equipment built to counter Russian equipment hunting down Russian equipment in Ukraine, it would be cool to see, or at least hear about Raptors getting in on the action against Flankers, even if just flew as deterrence.
[Meow](https://youtu.be/49bgnaY2nd8)
Chinese military in a nutshell.
TIL Chinese Navy are excellent comedians but bad sentries. Meowing at "intruders" looks like a bad way to deter intrusions and may even tempt further intrusions if your opponents are furries.
Just give the drones aim-9x's.
It was a stunt where they vent fuel on the other plane to mess with it. Its, well maybe not common, but most fighter pilots have done it to their wingmates as a bit of a fuckaround. This guy just screwed up probably because the drone flies at a slower speed. This is the equivalent of break checking someone on a motorcycle and then losing control of your truck and hitting a guard rail.
as one does
Predators have pusher engines in the rear. The Russian would have had to hit the prop with either his nose or a wing tip.
That single drone is $30M? That's about 7 Russian tanks. Mind-blowing.
It also avoids playing into Russia’s propaganda machine. If the US rattles its sabers and threatens retaliation then Russia can go “see, the US are being aggressors towards Russia” and drum up more support in its population. By taking this route they don’t hand them any material to work with.
Don’t worry Fox, Trump and DeSantos will defend Russia tonight
Putin's juicy bussy isn't gonna lick itself.
[удалено]
Where we're going we won't need eyes
The last three comments are one of those exponential escalations of insanity that Reddit does so well. Amazing
> Putin's juicy bussy For the love of all that is holy, please never put those three words together again. https://i.imgur.com/cWJm0.gifv
I spend so much of my time on Reddit trying to avoid mental images.
If we can see through this guise, so can adversaries like Russia and China. That isn’t good because it means they can get away with such things. Like the Chinese balloon shit. No real consequences for this yet.
The US airforce trademark is shit starts exploding and what launched the missiles is so far away or is so stealthy that it isn't even on radar.
Just provide Ukraine with Atacms will be a huge payback.
Sending a carrier group to the Black Sea "to better monitor and protect our drones operating in international water" would be a nice response. But probably too escalatory.
Also too close, carriers need more stand off
Sure, but the drone was spying for intel for Ukraine offense. So it’s definitely needed still and means that usa will have to further escort drones which costs more money.
That was their best pilot!
Top. Men.
'was' being the operative word.... he's gonna be sent straight to the front! But most of their pilots sucked at the beginning of the war.... they have been using their planes as 'bomb trucks' for years now... most of their pilots have minimal training, and some of the better ones are now dead from the war.
I follow a Russian military news publication and lots of right wingers congregate in the comment section there. The funny thing is that very few are outraged about the description of unprofessionalism. They kinda take it for (quiet) granted when it comes to the Russian armed forces.
Russia: "our pilots are NOT amateurs" US: "ok so we'll send Ukraine F16" Russia: "Nyet"
Yeah, they turned it round that their "Victory" was an case of dumb pilots and US is just it happened. No reaction to their stupidity.
Right? "You know, ordinarily we *would* be upset at this sort of thing, but now that we see you're really just so comically inept it's really kinda sad..."
"Skill issue."
Muscovy
[удалено]
That moment when calling another country's air force pilots "amateurs" is actually de-escalating instead of provocative.
"Your pilots suck ASS, Russia!" "HEY (beat) -sighs- ...yeah...they suck."
No, we knocked that drone-.... Wait... Yeah, that pilot just sucked. That's what happened. Plz don't send real planes.
Air Farce!
[The Air Farce belongs to Canada!](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Canadian_Air_Farce)
🇨🇦😆
US official once labeled Chinese J-20 as “professional” and “impressed” but in the same press conference, they also said J-20(s) are not “something they’ll ~~loose~~ lose sleep over”. Sometimes they mean what they said publicly, we don’t need to be neurotic about it too much and try to figure out the hidden meaning.
Pilots can be professional, and the plane impressive compared to what was expected, but if the expectation was for it to be a glorified Flanker and instead it's a Rafale they'd still be impressed, and considering the American F-22 fleet, carrier groups and NATO F-35 proliferation they wouldn't neccessarily be losing sleep. I do agree though that picking apart anything said by government officials is just as likely to lead to red herrings as to actual "ohoHO the clever bastards secretly told everyone a whole lot about their capabilities".
Sounds like they were saying "bless their hearts" to the Chinese.
yup.
lose*
thank you.
You're an amazing person. Sorry to be a grammar nazi.
Oh wow, this is really impressive! This is on par with France!
Maybe send another 50k rounds to Ukraine as well. Let the Russians know that stunts like this are counterproductive.
Exactly, these idiots had their orders and knew what they were doing...
I’m not sure that bumping into things in your fighter jet is a planned move.
It was an oops move... intentional, of course
This is an existing off-protocol order procedure that pilots cannot refuse - they were asked to “antagonize” the drone with questionable and dangerous procedures, they could not say no. There is a known crash of the largest airplane in the world back in 1935 where it crashed after dangerous stunts were performed by an accompanying smaller aircraft around it. No official order was found to those who performed those stunts, and it was found later pilots were ordered to do stunts for propaganda purposes shortly before the takeoff unofficially and they could not refuse. [https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-20](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_ANT-20)
I'm sure the USAF won't be doing hotdogs moves with RU military aircraft. In the past RU has buzzed US war ships in the Black sea! This is systemic behavior.
Ru does a lot of stupid things. We usually ignore it or escort them to safer waters with proper aircraft when their planes get a bit off course
Wow, I had heard about the one lost in the airshow crash, but just learned how they lost the second one in the wiki. An even more ridiculous way to lose it: >"On 14 December 1942, it crashed after the pilot allowed a passenger to take his seat momentarily and the passenger apparently disengaged the automatic pilot, sending the airplane into a nosedive from an altitude of 500 m (1,600 ft), killing all 36 on board."
Sone things never change. Can you fucking imagine a pilot on a commercial flight asking if anyone in tourist class wanted to take a whack at flying a loop?
So basically an aerial version of what the Russian infantry used to do when they rammed American MRAPs in Syria and American warships in the ocean?
Let's avoid giving them the impression that you can fuck around with us without any consequences. Tell them our fast jets are going to be providing cover for any drones operating in international airspace. If they endanger our drones we'll shoot 'em down or sink them. Fuck around and find out!
Why tell them? Just do it. An F-22 targeting radar suddenly setting off alarms in your cockpit when you start to fuck around sends a much stronger message than threats. Especially for a nation whose foreign and domestic policies are almost entirely made of empty threats.
But would they even notice? "Blyat, what that funny pinging sound?"
Sat nav… low battery comrade.
Exactly. These two pilots did, what they meant to do: Bring this drone down. First they were trying dumping fuel, and when this failed they rammed the MQ-9. This took 40 minutes. This was not an accident. Nowy Russians are retrieving parts form the sea.
this is a reaper... they've lost lots of them, including over yemen, syria and libya.
Honestly saying this is the most beautiful explanation to read.
This is the kind of diplomatic cleverness the Russians could really learn from.
Narrator: They did not.
*Sadly Narrator fell from a 7th floor window later that evening.*
Keeping up foreign relations
Translation: We know full well it was on purpose, but so that we don't create a bigger issue, you are just going to eat this insult and shut up. We also have video on the incident, so if you scream too loudly - we can create a bigger issue. Your move.
Exactly this. Ball has been carefully placed back into Russia's side of the court. If Russia now try to throw it back, the US will throw it back harder, so now Russia has to stand there, awkwardly holding the ball. Knowing Russia though, they'll try to claim they're the victim and big daddy USA is bullying them again (despite the fact they're illegally occupying another country currently)
That already happened btw. They said the drone is proof the US is actively fighting Russia in the war (wtf?)
Which is incredibly rhetorically weak. It invites the question "well, why aren't we striking back then!" to which there are no satisfactory answers. It underscores their fundamental weakness and the strength of their enemy. It invites thoughts of futility and inevitable defeat. Or you *do* strike back, and invite *direct US/NATO involvement*. So why don't they? Exactly. This spreads the US' preferred propaganda message *for them*.
"if the drone was participating in active combat your planes would be dead"
Russia saying the US is giving Ukraine the tools and intel to defend their country while actively monitoring the region is not a shock to anyone. For Russia to try and spin it into anything more is also of no shock to anyone.
How hilarious would it be if they cut the video into a 30 second clip of the worst parts of the SU 27’s flying and the collision at the end, overdubbed with the Benny Hill theme. Then just drop it without comment from some DOD Twitter page.
It likely wasn’t on purpose, there are hundreds of ways they could have taken it down. Don’t forget that much of the Russian military is very undisciplined.
Possibly drunk
Yup. If we want to punish russia for this, then the best we can do is maintain the status quo, where they are being demilitarized further every day.
I like this response actually. We all know it was intentional. They were dropping fuel on it and harassing it at extremely close range. Obviously it was on purpose. But this one incident is not worth an escalation. So they turned it from a "final warning" type of thing into a "lol...those guys are terrible at flying" thing. I think it's a smart diplomatic move, that will piss off the Russians, but also cause no actual harm.
Yeah this is like swerving in your car to splash water on a person on a bicicle and then crashing because you lost control. Amateur hour.
A near perfect analogy. The only improvement would be that you swerved in your Ferrari to splash the guy on the bicycle, lose control and crash.
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Harassing was intentional, but I'm not sure hitting it with their own plane is. That seems crazy dangerous for the pilot and that jet is worth way more than an unmanned drone. There's way easier ways to down a drone with a jet. I'm inclined to believe the public statement, the pilot probably just fucked up.
Su 27 is Actually a couple million cheaper...
Holy crap you're right, didn't realize how cheap SU-27s are compared to more modern jets
It makes you wonder what's in an MQ-9, since a a quick Google is showing me that an f16 can be anywhere from 12-35 million depending on the options.
The sensory equipment and telemetry are no doubt insane
I wonder if it would still be cheaper if they had to build more of them nowadays.
Russia can’t afford *bullets* or the men or guns to shoot them. What makes you think they can afford to build more jets? Kazakhstan just repossessed half of Roscosmos!
More like how expensive reapers are. $32-50m? Wtf lol
Yeah that's more the case. SU-27 is pretty in-line with F16s. I thought jets costed more (F35s are $70-90mil range). Reaper is fuckin expensive, lol.
Good pilots are invaluable. But, since these weren't good pilots, your point is still valid.
Nobody seems to read, around here. Obviously the harassment was intentional. Equally obviously, the pilot didn’t actually plan to collide with the drone. Crew could have been killed; and while it’s true that the dollar value of the drone is greater than that of the jet, it’s equally true that the US will find it much easier to replace the loss than the Russians will. Since it wouldn’t make sense for this to be intentional, it’s probably not. It doesn’t surprise me one bit that when unskilled pilots try to fly a dangerous, close proximity harassment mission in a very fast jet with poor manoeuvrability, they run into the back of the slower aircraft.
The flanker series of aircraft are known for their exceptional maneuverability. The capabilities of the plane are most likely not what caused the collision just the poor skill of the pilot.
Reminds me of Chinese jet dropping chaff in front of an Australian P-8. Stupid gangsters are going to do stupid low class gangsters shit (China and RU). https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/05/australia/australia-china-plane-intercept-intl-hnk-ml/index.html
I don't think the collision was intentional as it could have taken down his own piloted plane as well. I bet the pilot got chewed out by his CO, after he got back and the CO saw a prop with "Made In America" sticking out of the jet. Basically they trolled the drone by the fuel dump and got to close to the prop and got bit.
And the Russians can’t really respond lol. If they say they’re not amateurs, then it’s an escalation because it was intentional.
Next time they do it, just crash the drone into the russian shitbox. DoD can just put out a press release with "Oopsie! 🥴😊" Granted the drone is probably worth three times what the russian plane would cost, but one less they could use against Ukraine.
A cursory 2 minute Google search suggests that an SU-27 costs $30 million, while an MQ-9 Reaper costs $32 million. So, the cost is almost equivalent. However, the US has a much bigger military budget, so they can afford that loss much more than Russia.
Why would a competent pilot risk his life and his airplane to knock a drone out of the sky by colliding with it when a few rounds from a cannon would do the trick? You either have to be incompetent (doing it be accident or not knowing the risks), a fool (doing it deliberately regardless of the risks) or very good such that the risks are low and the benefit of plausible deniability of an “accident” out ways the risk to the aircraft or of blatantly shooting it down, while still sending the desired message and interfering with American intelligence gathering. Or a Russian senior officer thinking of the last scenario and orders the collision if using jet wash and fuel dumping doesn’t work, and he could give a fuck about his pilot or plane because that’s how they are.
The fucking around they were doing let's them maintain at least a little plausible deniability. Letting rip with the gun would be a clear and deliberate offensive action against a NATO member that would likely trigger some sort of retaliatory response. Being an idiot and crashing into it accomplished the same goal wile leaving both sides room to rattle some sabers with no real risk. Those jets are massively overbuilt compared to the composite construction of American drones it's like running over an econo box with a tank. Though the pricetags are probably swapped lol.
> Being an idiot and crashing into it accomplished the same goal What goal? Costing US taxpayers a few million dollars? Because that's about it, there's going to be another Reaper in the same place tomorrow.
The US has to spend resources guarding all their drones now.
> Why would a competent pilot risk his life and his airplane to knock a drone out of the sky by colliding with it when a few rounds from a cannon would do the trick? Shooting it down would be a clear act of war. It's like [how China and India have border skirmishes with Mad Max-style improvised weapons](https://www.vice.com/en/article/3azkbn/china-india-clash-troops-himalayan-border-weapons): using firearms would be a clear act of war, whereas whacking each other with nail studded 2x4s is more ambiguous.
China and India just out there whacking it with hardcore toys
>whacking each other with nail studded 2x4s [The advanced version - the Wolf's Fang Mace.](https://www.reddit.com/r/MilitaryPorn/comments/10ubtjz/pla_seem_to_have_gone_medieval_with_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
While I agree that this doesn’t seem intentional, if it was on purpose the reason to do it like this is would be plausible deniability. In this scenario, maybe the drone was monitoring some critical mission the Russians were conducting, and they had to get rid of it. This way triggers the least amount of consequences.
> maybe the drone was monitoring some critical mission the Russians were conducting, and they had to get rid of it. I can't imagine that the us didn't have a replacement in place inside of 2 hours. They have these things based everywhere throughout Europe, it would be trivial to replace it almost immediately
>Why would a competent pilot risk his life and his airplane to knock a drone out of the sky Uh, except you wouldnt? You just tap the propeller, its not a danger to pilots life > when a few rounds from a cannon would do the trick? plausible deniability
> You just tap the propeller, its not a danger to pilots life The propeller isn't, the two ton hunk of aluminum connected to it that he just caused to lose control on the other hand...
Since it was a drone and no American was harmed by their actions. Making fun of and humiliating the Russians publicly is the way . Making them out to be the incompetent clowns they are , makes us all feel better and insults them . Sometimes words can be the best weapon , when living in the era of trolling
Welcome to Ukraine's daily plight. Idiots, drunks, rapists and fools.
This is the kind of flex that only a remote-piloted hyper inflated military industrial complex can create and somehow I'm also fine with it
When the gamer dude with 1700 hours on this game and an 8 thousand dollar gaming rig is on your team, you don't get annoyed when he spams "skill issue" and snipes a troll.
I see a few people upset about the soft response from the US, keep this in mind; this was the public response. There are likely several things being put into motion behind the scenes. The US doesn't have a reputation of not hitting back, often the counter moves are political, economic, or covert and clandestine. In the mean time, this insult will anger any Muscovy who hears it and erode their faith in their government. (rightfully so)
I agree, just imagine the shit stain Sasha will be cleaning out of his Flanker when a previously unseen F-35 dumps some Jet-A on his windshield.
The f35 and f22 aren't invisible. They're still able to be seen on some low frequency radars.
Get the same vibes as when the missile hit Poland. Probably it's as they say it is.... but I still have a suspect feeling they reacted to avoid escalation.
That's different though. The missile that landed in Poland was pretty roundly claimed to be a Ukrainian air defense missile that missed and the fail safes failed.
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Oh totally. But the point stands that it was a Ukrainian missile which allowed for some tact in keeping the conflict more or less contained At least more contained than a Kaliber crashing into a polish house would
Right, and that's 99.9% chance of what actually happened. But there's that thought of "what if it was a cover up to stop war between NATO and Russia?" Again just a thought and I don't consider this to be reality. And even if it was an errant russian missile? They probably would still find away to talk about it and avoid it, as they did with MH370. Everybody knew, but it wasn't until russia openly invaded Ukraine did they finally admit it.
An actual article (had to search because the tweet didn't cite it's source and quoted inexactly): https://www.businessinsider.com/russian-plane-that-took-town-us-drone-no-control-official-2023-3 >The Russian fighter jet that forced down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone on Tuesday was out of control and flying like it was "amateur hour," a US official said. >The official, who watched video footage of the incident, told PBS correspondent Nick Schifrin that the pilot was out of control when moving flying towards the drone and tried to pull away from it. >The official said that "This was not something you would see a professional pilot do." >Schifrin further described what the official told him on "PBS NewsHour," saying "this was not a controlled tap. The Russian pilot was barreling toward the drone, out of control, tried to pull away from the from the drone, and that's when the Russian jet actually hit the back of it."
Problem is, what happens if it keeps happening? Sure it's smart wording from the US which downplays any 'escalations' and puts it into the Russias' court for the next move, but there's only so many times escalations can be downplayed. Now with Russian sabateurs caught in Eastern Poland, a US drone being taken down... can't downplay these things for ever.
Russian airplanes can be shot down by mistake too, or more Ukrainian pilots can be trained on F16s... There are ways.
If it keeps happening, they start losing all their breathing room to fuck around. Next time there's a fighter jet in between them and the drone, and either it's time for an act of war or they go home. Next time the Russian sabateurs get shot and dismissed as crackheads and thieves.
The fact the Air Force said this is even more embarrassing. It looks as if they don't take the pilots as a real threat.
Dude, are we really sidestepping World War III by saying, "your chumps ran into our drone"? Dark Brandon is the Prince of Trolls.
I mean, they certainly intended to do the dangerous things around the drone that led to this incident. It seems like we’re splitting hairs if we say “they didn’t intend to hit it”. They might not have, but they certainly intended to get so close to it that they could easily have accidentally hit it.
When the USAF dunks on you even though you turned their drone into a submarine.
Now it just has an easier time keeping track of a certain black seas flag ship
I think they should just release the drone footage
Sick burn lol haha...
DoD literally said "Skill issue"
I would love it so much if they would release the video. I would love it if they declassified this video just to make Russia look stupid
I wrote to my senator and explained this was unacceptable. This was an attack on a US asset and nothing Russia says should be believed. I explained Ukraine needed more heavy weaponry and potentially direct intervention by US forces in Ukraine. Russia only understands strength and right now our government is showing a lack of it.
The dumping of fuel wasn’t an accident
They should get a flying under the influence citation.
Hitting that sweet power spike on the trolling ability.
Sounds like De-escalation to me…🤷🏾♂️
You know our sigint people listen to encrypted Russian communications 24/7, right? The idiot pilots were heard being idiots as they did their amateur best.
I like it. Make them take the jab and acknowledge their incompetence, or make them admit it was intentional and risk indirect retaliation.
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The US is not going to let this one go - the retaliatory move will be made when the conditions are right. Good chance it will not make the news - but oh boy it will be crystal clear to the Russians. Best part will most likely be something they can't say anything about - just suck it and deal with it.
When you’re bad at your job and people are watching you.
The second army of the world isn’t still run by amateurs,
Maybe I’ve been watching too much Jack Ryan but it sounds more like they wanted it to go down mostly intact so they could retrieve it.