Russian fighter pilots harass U.S. military drones in Syria for second straight day, Pentagon says

For the second time in two days, Russian fighter jets on Thursday engaged in “unsafe and unprofessional conduct” in direction of U.S. Air Drive drones over Syria, U.S. army officers stated.  

MQ-9 Reaper drones had been finishing up an operation towards Islamic State targets at about 9:30 a.m. native time Thursday when a number of Russian jets “dropped flares in entrance of the drones and flew dangerously shut,” in keeping with an announcement from Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich, commander of the Ninth Air Drive, an Air Drive Service Element of U.S. Central Command.

Video of the confrontation was additionally released by the Air Drive. No additional particulars had been supplied.

It adopted an analogous incident Wednesday morning, additionally over Syria, by which three MQ-9 drones had been harassed by three Russian fighter jets whereas additionally on a mission towards ISIS, the Air Drive stated.

In that occasion, in keeping with Grynkewich, the jets dropped “a number of parachute flares in entrance of the drones,” subsequently forcing them to “conduct evasive maneuvers.”

This marks not less than the third such confrontation this yr between U.S. drones and Russian fighter jets. The Pentagon in March launched video of a Russian fighter jet colliding with an Air Drive MQ-9 Reaper drone in worldwide air area, inflicting the drone to crash into the Black Sea.

“The US will proceed to fly and to function wherever worldwide regulation permits, and it’s incumbent upon Russia to function its army plane in a secure {and professional} method,” U.S. Protection Secretary Lloyd Austin stated on the time.

In response to the Air Drive, an MQ-9 Reaper drone is primarily used for intelligence gathering, however may also be geared up with as much as eight laser-guided Hellfire missiles.