Marta Hychko22:58, 04/09/23
This incident was much more serious than was publicly reported.
A Russian fighter jet nearly shot down a British RC-135 Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft over the Black Sea last fall. This incident was much more serious than it was mentioned in the media. The downing of the plane threatened NATO’s entry into the war with Russia.
As the Washington Post writes with reference to the leak of Pentagon documents, the incident took place on September 29 near the coast of Crimea. The leaked document calls the incident “the near-destruction of UK RJ”. The plane is used to collect radio transmissions and other electronic messages.
British Defense Minister Ben Wallace reported this incident to the country’s House of Commons. He said two Russian Su-27 fighter jets intercepted the RC-135 in international airspace over the Black Sea. One of the Russian planes fired a missile near the British scout. However, the British minister did not publicly describe this incident as a “near miss” and explained the launch of the missile as a “technical malfunction” of the Russian Su-27.
The publication notes that the downing of a British plane in international airspace would mean NATO entering the war against Russia. At the same time, Pentagon representatives refused to comment on the content of the leaked document. A representative of the British embassy in Washington also declined to comment, and the Russian embassy did not respond to a request for comment.
The document was addressed to the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs of Staff and details surveillance flights over the Black Sea from the day the “near miss” was reported until February 26.
In addition, the document describes in detail a number of other Russian reactions to reconnaissance flights by American, British and French aircraft. These include the interception of another British Rivet Joint escorted by two British Typhoon fighters last December and the downing of an American MQ-9 reconnaissance drone.
(C)UNIAN 2023
good that it did not happen
last year i was still of conscription age
and i don’t want to fight
i think i would be a terrible soldier
i am a snowflake
i admit
a keyboard warrier
And partly illiterate too!
only because i made a typo and because i am saving money by not using my shift button?
It costs extra to use your shift key? That’s why you’re shiftless? 🙂
yes i am cheap
i have always said so
i also do it because it looks funny
in my phone book i also save the names of people that i think are funny without capital letters because it looks silly
Leaked Documents Suggest Ukrainian Air Defense Is in Peril if Not Reinforced
A huge influx of munitions is needed to keep Russia’s air force from changing the course of the war, according to U.S. officials and newly leaked Pentagon documents.
WASHINGTON — For more than a year, Ukrainian air defenses, reinforced by Western weaponry, have kept Russian planes at bay.
But without a huge influx of munitions, Ukraine’s entire air defense network, weakened by repeated barrages from Russian drones and missiles, could fracture, according to U.S. officials and newly leaked Pentagon documents, potentially allowing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia to unleash his lethal fighter jets in ways that could change the course of the war.
In the early days of the invasion, Russian aircraft flew hundreds of combat flights to bomb targets in Ukraine. But a combination of quick thinking by Ukrainian commanders and poor intelligence and bad aim by Russian pilots left many of Ukraine’s warplanes and air defenses intact, preventing Moscow from gaining control of the skies above the battlefield and forcing Russia to keep much of its air force out of the fight.
Now Pentagon officials are worried that Moscow’s barrage of attacks from afar is draining Ukraine’s stores of the missiles it uses to defend itself. And a Pentagon assessment from late February contained in the trove of leaked documents that were discovered circulating online last week paints an even grimmer picture.
Stocks of missiles for Soviet-era S-300 and Buk air defense systems, which make up 89 percent of Ukraine’s protection against most fighter aircraft and some bombers, were projected to be fully depleted by May 3 and mid-April, according to one of the leaked documents. The document, which was issued on Feb. 28, based the assessment on consumption rates at the time. It is not clear if those rates have changed.
The same document assessed that Ukrainian air defenses designed to protect troops on the front line, where much of Russia’s air power is concentrated, will “be completely reduced” by May 23, resulting in strains on the air defense network deeper into Ukrainian territory.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/09/us/politics/leaked-documents-ukrainian-air-defense.html
That’s from “a Pentagon assessment from late February” – hopefully, they’ve replenished supplies between then and now.
Speaking of which, what were the consequences for mafia land having downed our drone the other week? WTF, exactly, is Biden in the WH for?