U.S. (MQ-9 Reaper drone) struck/downed by Russian jet (Su-27) over the Black Sea

[Woody]

https://twitter.com/CNBC/status/1635702028474122242

A Russian SU-27 apparently rammed the drone down to international waters. ngl that's pretty badass:

https://twitter.com/laraseligman/status/1635684832297594889?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%...
https://twitter.com/laraseligman/status/1635685121876434944

[President Johnson]

The US condemed "reckless actions" by Russia here.

https://twitter.com/dwnews/status/1635700154580840450

[DrScholl]

I wonder whose side some blue avatars are on here?

[Dereich]

I look forward to seeing what the Biden administration does to deter further Russian aggression over international waters in the future. I'm sure they know that China will be watching very closely and that allowing this to pass without a response will encourage similar Chinese actions over the South China Sea.

[President Johnson]

https://twitter.com/annmarie/status/1635695724057833489

[MasterJedi]

I’m sure this is somehow Biden’s fault and Republicans will bow down to Putin yet again.

[GeneralMacArthur]

An SU-27 costs significantly more than an MQ-9, and that's before taking into account that Russia has about 1/10th of our military budget.  Plus ours was just a drone while theirs was an aircraft flown by humans.  What was Russia thinking?

My guess is this was just some idiot pilot and not an actual decision by any Russian commander.

Can we get footage?  These drones record everything don't they.

[ProudModerate2]

Are we certain that their (Russia's) plane went down during their encounter with our drone?
I'm not seeing this in the article I read; only that our drone went down.

[emailking]

This reminds me of the incident with China in 2001. Good thing it's just a drone this time.

[President Johnson]

These are the kind of situations I'm really glad a president with decades of experience and steady hand who knows what he's doing is in charge and not the erratic orange man who certainly wouldn't even find the Black Sea on a world map.

[lfromnj]

Yeah I'm going with an accident for now considering Russians lost their own plane.

[Woody]

An SU-27 costs significantly more than an MQ-9, and that's before taking into account that Russia has about 1/10th of our military budget.  Plus ours was just a drone while theirs was an aircraft flown by humans.  What was Russia thinking?

My guess is this was just some idiot pilot and not an actual decision by any Russian commander.

Can we get footage?  These drones record everything don't they.

The SU-27 is a fighter jet from the 70s/80s with a unit cost of 30 mil. The MQ-9 is a 21s century UAV, with the latest versions costing around 32 mil, so about the same price. Although the risk of the Russian pilot dying was not worth it.

[Woody]

Yeah I'm going with an accident for now considering Russians lost their own plane.

There has been no reports about that from anyone, including the U.S.

This was intentional.

[Suburbia]

Why doesn't NATO find a way to get rid of Putin once and for all?

[100% pro-choice no matter what]

Why doesn't NATO find a way to get rid of Putin once and for all?

I've always assumed the reason this never happens is that there is a sort of MAD for the assassination of the leaders of major powers. That is, the US has ways to eliminate Putin but Putin also has ways to eliminate Brandon.

[President Johnson]

Why doesn't NATO find a way to get rid of Putin once and for all?

Not just would a targeted assassination be very dangerous because it could trigger World War III, but also because anything that likely follows isn't much of an improvement. The entire political system of Russia needs to be overthrown and replaced by government that values democratic norms and standards. That's a process that can only happen from within. And might take a long time. Russia is a country with virtually no democratic culture and history. It has always been ruled by either strongmen or utterly corrupt regimes.

However, I hope Putin and his cronies are rather sooner than later is taken out and be trialed for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

[Woody]

Breaking: Rumblings on Russian telegram that the Russian Black Sea fleet has found and raised the wreckage of the UAV.

[Crumpets]

Swap the aggressor and the target here and just imagine how many "WWIII imminent" takes there would be on Twitter.

[Mr.Bakari-Sellers]

It's not gonna trigger War Powers Act Prez can make war for 90 days because Putin has to attackba NATO COUNTRY

[falling apart like the ashes of American flags]

Swap the aggressor and the target here and just imagine how many "WWIII imminent" takes there would be on Twitter.

This reminds me of how after the Soleimani assassination you actually had posters here who were unironically worried about the draft being reinstated, LMAO.

[You are responsible]

Seems like the Russians have some real cowboys among their pilots. Do they still show Top Gun in Moscow?

[Torie]

Yeah I'm going with an accident for now considering Russians lost their own plane.

I have read nothing that stated that Russia's plane went down.

[longtimelurker]

Seems like the Russians have some real cowboys among their pilots. Do they still show Top Gun in Moscow?

Or pilots who fly drunk, or at least altered.  I'm serious.

[Sir Mohamed]

A deliberate provocation. I just hope they make sure Russia isn't able to salvage the wreck.

[Shaula🏳️‍⚧️]

Just like with Iran in 2019, this should be responded to with a warning to be careful, but no military action.