US military releases video from Russian fighter jet crash with drone

thebeaver · March 16, 2023, 1:38pm

Make of this what you will…

LUIS MARTINEZ

Thu, March 16, 2023 at 5:02 AM CDT

U.S. European Command has released dramatic declassified video taken by the 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.

The video was taken from a camera on the drone’s underside and shows two different passes taken by the jets to spray the drone, the second one being the collision with the propeller at the rear of the drone, which is visible in the footage.

Communications were lost with the drone as the image can be seen pixelating into color bars.

EUCOM also confirmed that communications with the drone were down for a minute and that the released video was edited for time.

When the video feed resumed one of the propeller blades can be seen damaged from the collision with the Russian fighter.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

US military releases video from Russian fighter jet crash with drone originally appeared on abcnews.go.com

bluenose · March 16, 2023, 3:25pm

So, the fuel spray caused the “pixelating”, and that’s why we didn’t see the propeller connect with the jet? Did the drone have a windshield wash/wiper capability? Or, another type of lens cleaning technology similar to that probe(?) with the dirty solar panels that cleaned themselves? I say the latter since that would be no doubt be classified hence, not reportable.

bluenose · March 16, 2023, 3:39pm

Perhaps this was a cover up to hide the fact that the human drone operator was startled and unintentionally jerked on a joystick and caused the collision. Or, maybe the drone was AI operated and acting in self defense or made an offensive maneuver? The sky’s the limit on this one. Pun intended…kinda sorta.