By Maurin Picard
Posted yesterday at 7:39pm, updated yesterday at 9:32pm
Image shows the interception of a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday by two Russian Sukhoi SU-27 fighter jets. US Air Force video
ANALYSIS – The Pentagon may be forced to escort its Reaper drones with fighter jets.
The MQ-9 Reaper drone, shot down by two Sukhoi Su-27 fighters over the Black Sea west of Crimea on Tuesday morning, is not and will not be the last unmanned aerial vehicle to suffer from Moscow’s showdown with the West . Since the start of the first Cold War in 1946, many planes have been shot down and submarines have gone down by sheer provocation or simple error without provoking a general confrontation.
However, the incident that took place in the Black Sea on Tuesday morning is very serious. Mainly because it takes place on the southern flank of a very real war in Ukraine. Then, because the destroyed Reaper provided American intelligence, and certainly its Ukrainian partners, with valuable images of the Russian military system in Crimea, the Kiev-designated reconquest target. Anonymous sources within the USAF suggest that the Russian pilot involved “accidentally” boarded…
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