March 16, 2023 - Epoch Times
10:48
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| Just yesterday, a $32 million American drone that was flying over the Black Sea, well, it fell into the water shortly after it encountered two Russian fighter jets. | |
| Now obviously, given the heightened level of tension and the real-world possibility of a kinetic war between Russia and America, the facts of this case need to be made clear before we jump to any conclusions. | |
| And so let's lay out what we know actually happened. | |
| To start with, the drone in question was an unmanned American Reaper drone, specifically the MQ-9 model. | |
| And this drone was flying through international airspace, over the Black Sea, near the Crimean Peninsula, flying in the direction towards the Russian border. | |
| And as the drone was getting closer to the border, its location was picked up by Russian radar, and as a response, two Russian Su-27 fighter jets were scrambled in order to intercept. | |
| And within several minutes of making contact, well, the drone fell into the water. | |
| And so, that is the extent of what we know definitely happened. | |
| Those are the indisputable facts of the case. | |
| However, as to why, specifically, the American drone fell into the Black Sea, well, there are two versions of the story, the American version and the Russian version. | |
| Let's go through them together, starting with the American one. | |
| And by the way, I hope that if you appreciate content like this, you do take a quick moment to smash those like and subscribe buttons, which quite literally forces the YouTube algorithm to share this video out to ever more people. | |
| Now, back to the American version of events. | |
| Our U.S. Air Force Command over in Europe, they released a statement just yesterday saying that the crash was a result of unprofessional and reckless actions on the part of the Russians. | |
| Here's specifically what the relevant part of their statement said. | |
| Quote, two Russian Su-27 aircraft conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept with a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 aircraft that was operating within international airspace over the Black Sea. | |
| At approximately 7.03 a.m. Central European time, one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters. | |
| 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. | |
| Now, given the fact that the gravity of this incident risks sparking an actual conflict, it's a little bit comical to read the U.S. military, including the fact that the Russians' actions were environmentally unsound. | |
| Regardless though, setting that aside, this was the course of events as described by the U.S. military. | |
| They were flying the drone in international waters. | |
| The drone came across two Russian jets, who began to antagonize the drone, dump fuel on top of it, and eventually, one of the Russian jets struck the propeller of the drone, causing it to go down into the water. | |
| And according to the statement, this was risky on the part of the Russians, not even just because of the possibility of escalating tensions, but also because, quote,"...this unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash." Which, I can only imagine, means that the propeller of the American drone was struck not by a bullet, but by the actual body of the Russian fighter jet. | |
| Now, I've never been in the Air Force, but at least that's what I make out happened. | |
| And so that is the American side of the story. | |
| However, about two hours after that statement was released, the Russian Defense Ministry, they released their own version of events. | |
| Now, notably, they did not respond at all to allegations that the Russian fighter jets were dumping fuel on the drone, but instead, they said that the crash was due to erratic aerial maneuvers. | |
| Here's specifically what part of their statement said. | |
| Quote, U.S. drone MQ-9 fell into the Black Sea on Tuesday morning due to its own sharp maneuvering. | |
| Russian fighters did not come into contact with it and did not use weapons. | |
| As a result of sharp maneuvering around 9.30 Moscow time, unmanned aerial vehicle MQ-9 went into an uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water's surface. | |
| The Russian fighters did not use airborne weapons, did not come into contact with the unmanned aerial vehicle, and returned safely to their home airfield. | |
| Meaning that the Russian version of events says that their two fighter jets innocently intercepted the drone. | |
| The drone as a result made some erratic sharp maneuvers and crashed because of it. | |
| And along with their statement, here's actual video footage floating around Russian Telegram right now, you can see it up on your screen, and it purportedly shows the view from inside the cockpit of one of the Russian fighter jets as they're flying past the American drone. | |
| Now do take that video with a grain of salt because it hasn't been 100% confirmed, but looking at it, it does look rather authentic. | |
| Regardless though, getting back to the statement from the Russian Defense Ministry, very notably, in their version of events, the Russian fighter jets made no physical contact with the American drone, nor did they pour fuel on it. | |
| Instead, apparently, after they intercepted the drone, The drone itself made some sharp maneuvers and just fell out of the sky. | |
| And so, based on who you believe, the Russian jets were either reckless and irresponsible or they were perfectly innocent. | |
| However, there is one allegation within the Russian press release, which is that they claim, meaning the Russians claim, that while flying in the Black Sea, the American drone had its transponders turned off. | |
| Essentially, the Russian Defense Ministry is accusing the Pentagon of ignoring international protocols that were established in order to avoid inadvertent NATO-Russian clashes. | |
| Here's the relevant part of the statement. | |
| we were describing this part. | |
| Quote, the flight of the drone was carried out with transponders turned off, violating the boundaries of the area of the temporary regime for the use of airspace established for the purpose of conducting a special military operation. | |
| They're referring to the war in Ukraine, communicated to all users of international airspace and published in accordance with international standards. | |
| Now, whether that's true or not, it's not been confirmed. | |
| The U.S. military has thus far not commented on whether their transponders were, in fact, turned off during the flight. | |
| The act of war goes, I'm not going to go there. | |
| Incidents happen, and clearly we do not seek armed conflict with Russia, and I believe that at this point we should investigate this incident and move on from there. | |
| But we will continue to exercise our rights in international airspace. | |
| And so that is what we know about this crash, as well as the two sides of the story. | |
| However, the next obvious question is what about the wreckage? | |
| Because regardless of how it got there, the fact remains that there is now a $32 million American drone somewhere on the Black Sea near Crimea. | |
| And indeed, the race is on for who can get there first. | |
| On the Russian side, Mr. | |
| Nikolai Petrushev, the Secretary of Russia's Security Council, he came out just yesterday and said that they are actively looking for the American drone. | |
| Quote, I don't know whether we'll be able to retrieve it or not, but it has to be done, and we will certainly work on it. | |
| This was then reiterated by an article within the AFP, which was citing sources within the Kremlin, when they wrote this, And he said earlier today that it's, | |
| quote, But when he was pressed by CNN about the Russians trying to get their hands on that drone, well, Mr. | |
| John Kirby responded by saying that, quote, And so, what exactly that means is not clear, but I think in practice, what it means is that we are now witnessing two rival superpowers. | |
| Deploying their assets into the Black Sea, not far at all from the fighting that's happening in Ukraine, in order to recover this advanced drone. | |
| And the stakes are rather high, because if the Russians are able to recover the American drone first, then they will undoubtedly try to reverse engineer the thing. | |
| Because even though the Russians, of course, have their own unmanned drone technology, well, frankly, it never hurts to learn about the $32 million inner secrets of your rival's technology. | |
| And so that is where we stand at this moment. | |
| If you'd like to read more about what happened with this drone in the Black Sea or about this race to recover the thing, well, I'll throw all my research notes down into the description box below this video for you to check out. | |
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| And then also, if anyone watching this program happens to be in the U.S. Air Force, or you happen to previously have served in the Air Force, what's your opinion about what's happening here? | |
| Do you think that this case is just being overblown? | |
| Because I know that the last time we did an episode on Russian fighter jets being intercepted by the Americans over by Alaska, well, several people who were in the U.S. Air Force, they wrote comments below that video saying that, well, it was a common occurrence and not really a cause for concern. | |
| And so I'd love to know your thoughts about this case as well, since I'm sure you know a lot of nuances that most people are just not privy to. | |
| And so, do you think it's common for fighter jets to dump fuel on rival fighter jets? | |
| Do you think that the Russian story is plausible, that the American drone just crashed of its own accord? | |
| And what do you make of that cockpit video from inside the Russian fighter jet? | |
| Do you think it's authentic? | |
| And if so, do you think that the Russians were indeed flying a little bit too close for comfort to the drone? | |
| And also, what do you make of the American claim that the Russian jet struck the propeller of the drone? | |
| Do you think that that strike had to have been made by a gun? | |
| Or is it actually possible that the propeller was struck by the actual body of the Russian fighter jet? | |
| Because I've never been in the Air Force, I'm not sure whether it's possible for two planes to be flying and one plane to bump the propeller of the other plane without crashing itself. | |
| And so I'd love to know your thoughts. | |
| If you know anything more about it than the common person, please leave your thoughts in the comment section below. | |
| I'd love to be reading them myself, and I'm sure many people watching this episode will appreciate them as well. | |
| And then until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times. |
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