This Thursday, the United States released a video showing Russian fighter jets “flying dangerously” alongside American “drones” over Syria, launching missiles and forcing MQ-9 Reapers into evasive maneuvers.
According to the US Air Force Command Center, the images show Wednesday’s meeting in which a Russian Su-35 fighter jet approaches the Reaper, and then several so-called parachute missiles enter the flight. the path of an unmanned aerial vehicle.
Rockets are attached to parachutes.
Lieutenant General Alex Grinkevich, commander of the 9th Air Force in the Middle East, said three U.S. drones were operating in northwestern Syria after 10:30 local time on a mission against the Islamic State (ISIS) group. without going into further details.
According to the commander, three Russian planes “began to chase the drones,” which were not armed and are usually used for reconnaissance missions.
Grinkevich said in a statement that one of the Russian pilots moved his plane in front of the “drone” and received the afterburner “SU-35”, which significantly increases its speed and air pressure.
The afterburner explosion could potentially damage the Reaper’s electronics, which is why Grinkevich said it reduces the drone operator’s ability to safely fly the aircraft.
“Russian warplanes behaved in an unsafe and unprofessional manner when interacting with US aircraft in Syria,” he said, adding that these actions threaten the security of American and Russian forces.
“We are calling on Russian forces in Syria to stop this reckless behavior and uphold the standards of behavior expected of a professional air force so that we can once again focus on the final defeat of the IS group,” he added.
For his part, and in a statement, the head of US Central Command, Army General Eric Kurilla, stressed that Russia’s disruption of ongoing efforts to clear airspace over Syria “increases the risk of escalation or miscalculation.”
About 900 US troops are deployed to Syria to work with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that are fighting Islamic State militants.
Other details about the operations with “drones” are not reported.