Comments on: The news so far on the drone downing

By: F

Fri, 17 Mar 2023 17:45:57 +0000

Richard Aubrey:

That’s what I was trying to say in my precious post. Now that we have seen video of the flyby, int is obvious the Russian pilot[s] was/were flying on the edge of a stall. They actually swooped down to get a good look at their target, then pulled up to slow themselves and get (slightly) higher than the drone. In that configuration they had degraded controllability and less visibility. So until the Russian pilot tells his story, I can well believe he misjudged on his second pass and struck a part of the drone. Had that misjudgment been slightly greater, the SU-27 would have been severely damaged, perhaps lost.

By: Richard Aubrey

Richard Aubrey — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 11:25:13 +0000

Talked to a carrier pilot–Viet Nam era–about low-speed maneuvering. For various reasons, control inputs have to be more forthright at low speeds, the air passing over the control surfaces having less pressure on them.
Lots of room for error.

By: TR

TR — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 05:18:18 +0000

Thanks om. 😀
You know how it goes- A US soldier loses his pistol overseas, + the news makes it sound like A B1-B bomber is dropping bombs on Moscow. 😀

By: om

om — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 01:14:50 +0000

TR:

Use the internet search thing, an example “Aviaiton Week MQ-9” yields

https://aviationweek.com/shows-events/afa-air-space-cyber-conference/mq-9-attritable-aircraft-contender

Attritable in part means cheap enough to loose to a hostile opponent. Not super duper super secret stuff IMO. Not fast, stealthy, or cutting edge.

By: om

om — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:56:29 +0000

Brain E:

Tomorrow will you commingle Nord Stream pipelines and MQ-9 and say it was US and Ukraine that brought the drone down? International air space must be approved by Russia now? Routine is what Russia says routine is?

Don’t be shy.

By: TR

TR — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:51:20 +0000

Thanks for the info, Brian E. 😀

I’m just hoping that this is a C grade/run-of-the-mill flying drone, + not a top secret one, that we don’t want Russia, or any other nation, to obtain.

Military secrets, what a pain. Hoo boy! 🙂

By: Miguel cervantes

Miguel cervantes — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:48:33 +0000

Like the drone that was reversed engineered by thr iranians after 2012

By: Brian E

Brian E — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:30:41 +0000

TR, according to defense officials, they did wipe the hard drives with bleach, so to speak, before it made a hard landing– if you can believe them.

“Russia’s defense ministry blamed the drone for the crash and said that its Su-27 jets did not come into contact with the U.S. aircraft.

[snip]

…two Russian Su-27 aircraft “dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner.”

Heaven forbid the Russkies flew in an “environmentally unsound” manner. It’s been reported global temperatures spiked during the incident.

I want to see the video before I’ll believe the US government– since they were so forthcoming and transparent with other events.

By: TR

TR — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 00:08:32 +0000

Like machines have in fictional, action-genre films;

[Why] don’t these drones have [radio-signal controlled, destroy-the-flying-drone devices in them], so the US military can destroy the drone(s), so it [won’t fall into enemy hands]?

Hmm.

By: Brian E

Brian E — Wed, 15 Mar 2023 22:56:58 +0000

“An MQ-9 reconnaissance drone on a routine mission…”

First, why should we believe this was a “routine mission”? Because our government said so?

According to sources I’ve heard, pieces of the drone were recovered approximately 60 km from Sevastopol, which means it may have been doing reconnaissance for the Ukrainians.

We know the US is providing targeting intelligence for the Ukrainians.

The US says it’s in deep water (up to 5,000 ft) and not likely recoverable. The Russians say they have the capability and will recover it.

So at this point, the score is one pipeline by the US and one drone by Russia.