U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a former NASA astronaut who flew with Russian pilots while in the U.S. Navy, says the incident that led to the crash of an MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea once again showed the incompetence of Moscow’s military. reports Business Insider.
“I am not surprised by this. I mean, I flew with Russian pilots, fighter pilots who couldn’t fly in formation. And I watched this video [a incidentului] and it’s pretty obvious what happened,” Kelly said in an interview with CNN.
“He (the Russian pilot) lost sight of her and entered her,” he said.
Kelly, who in November 2020 became only the fourth former NASA astronaut elected to the US Congress, compared the incident to “the incompetence we see every day on the battlefield in Ukraine.”
“That’s why the Russians are losing so much now. At this point, the best option for Putin would be to say, ‘Hey, this isn’t working,’ and stop this illegal invasion,” Mark Kelly said.
“I’m not surprised by that.”
Sen. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) shares his past experience with Russian pilots and his reaction to a Russian fighter jet that shot down an American drone over the Black Sea. @CNNSotu #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/tsPsXH7CxM
—CNN (@CNN) March 19, 2023
Serhiy Shoigu personally awarded the Russian pilots responsible for shooting down the drone
State media in Moscow reported last Friday that Russia’s defense minister awarded state awards to the Su-27 pilots who shot down the MQ-9 Reaper drone in the Black Sea for “preventing the aircraft from violating the borders of the special operations zone” without warning . pilot.
Russia has accused the US of violating airspace it says it created for its “special military operation” in Ukraine – a definition the US does not accept. Officials also said that Russia had not reported such airspace restrictions.
It will be recalled that a Russian fighter jet caused the crash of the US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea last Tuesday.
The Reaper drone and two SU-27 Flanker aircraft operated over international waters over the Black Sea. The US European Command said two Russian Su-27 fighter jets conducted an “unsafe and unprofessional interception” of a US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone operating in international airspace over the Black Sea.
Russia has tried to claim that the drone made a “sudden maneuver” and that is why it crashed, insisting that there was no contact between the plane and the drone.
But drone footage released by the Pentagon showed Russian fighter jets rapidly closing in on the drone, dumping fuel on it and appearing to damage the drone’s propeller.
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Source: Hot News
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