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[Lord Shonus]

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/winged-jdam-smart-bombs-are-now-operational-in-ukraine

US officials confirm that Ukraine now has JDAM capability.

[martinuzz]

A Russian jet fighter shot down a US surveillance drone that wsa flying over the Black Sea.
Let's hope all reactions will remain somewhat calm.

If this had been a manned aircraft that was shot down we would be in WW3 now..

EDIT: US Army calls it 'an unsafe and unprofessional interception'. According to the US, the drone was doing standard reconaissance over the international waters of the Black Sea. The US warns that 'these kind of dangerous and aggressive actions could lead to unintentional escalation'.

EDIT2: News article now no longer says 'shot down', instead it now says 'collision'.

[Telgin]

Based on what I've seen, a Russian jet tried to cause it to crash by dumping fuel, and when that didn't work they rammed the prop.  Some online debate on whether ramming it was intentional since it's extremely dangerous, but it's obvious they were trying to down it either way.

This won't lead to armed retaliation from the US, but if we're lucky it'll lead to escalation of what gear we send to Ukraine.

[anewaname]

They must want to know what types of hardware it is carrying.

The Pentagon video brief on CSPAN, jump to 12:50 minutes.

[Lord Shonus]

One of the biggest reasons drones are used is precisely this situation - they don't have to worry about Mrs. Francis Gary Powers making a fuss in the news. The results are going to be a bunch of Strongly Worded Notes with no long term effect.

[jipehog]

MQ-9 Reaper is one of the bigger drones, quick google put its price tag at 30million (roughly 3 Abraham tanks  or third of modern F15)

According to flight radar path posted online the incident indeed took place in international water in the middle of black sea. No where Russia could claim sovereignty like with British destroyer freedom of navigation near Crimea few years back.

[Lord Shonus]

Point is that this sort of thing happens all the time. Things aren't going to blow up over it.

[jipehog]

Sure, I am just trying to make sense of initial info. There could be many reason for this e.g. Russian usual harassment tactic we seen all over its border for years, up to something specific ( can MQ-9 Reaper drones used for naval resonance specifically to to find and track subs?) 

In other news
- Russia plans to increase the conscription age.
- Romania continue to gear up, getting some nice toys and setting up a new ammunition plant which I believe would also produce 155mm artillery shells.

[anewaname]

Russia claimed the airspace associated with Crimea, and that airspace (UKFV Simferopol FIR) extends over center of the Black Sea.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Maybe Russian doesn't consider it to be international at the moment.

[EuchreJack]

EDIT: nevermind 

[Telgin]

MQ-9 Reaper is one of the bigger drones, quick google put its price tag at 30million (roughly 3 Abraham tanks  or third of modern F15)

According to flight radar path posted online the incident indeed took place in international water in the middle of black sea. No where Russia could claim sovereignty like with British destroyer freedom of navigation near Crimea few years back.

I'm kind of astonished that an Abrams only costs about $10 million.  I know we have thousands but with the way the air force costs go I assumed we somehow just spent trillions on tanks that sit around and don't do much.

[jipehog]

@anewaname, I don't believe Russia's claim holds water.

Territorial airspace in which countries exercise sovereignty is very limited, I believe its extension over the country landmass corresponds with the maritime definition of territorial waters which by the most permissive definition is no more than 50km.

Flight information regions (FIR), devised by the international civil aviation organization they areas of technical responsibility to provide flight information services for international aviation. While sometimes FIR correlate with territorial airspace where countries exercise sovereignty, they do not entail sovereignty over international airspace.

There are other things Russia could claim (like ADIZ) but overall it is no more than the usual attempt to muddy the water and distract from the act of using military force against a US drone in international airspace.

[bloop_bleep]

I heard a rumor that they were trying to recover a drone for intel.

[anewaname]

@anewaname, I don't believe Russia's claim holds water.

Punning is the right attitude...

The statements from eucom.mil and the pentagon both said it was international airspace and Russia says there was no transponder (probably not truth but quite possible there was trickery involved that they noticed).

I keep considering how this war has become a staging ground for newer technology and tactics, and how every military is working to better understand how opposing technologies work in coordination with each other. Where else but over the Black Sea could the US test new technologies in a wartime situation? Where else but over the Black Sea, could the craft be knocked down and the salvage grabbed first by the Russians?

[jipehog]

Anything is possible, but there is nothing to suggest that MQ-9 aircraft was conducting anything but a routine operation as it has been doing for close to a year, and Russian pilot flying off the handle. Here is the flight path from the day before:


https://www.itamilradar.com/2023/03/13/another-week-begins-in-the-black-sea-theatre/