The Pentagon is again accusing Russia of unsafe operations in the Middle East, releasing a video taken July 5 that shows a Russian fighter harassing a U.S. MQ-9.
The video shows the Su-35 deploying parachute flares in front of the Reaper over Syria, stating the maneuver was “against established norms and protocols, this forced U.S. aircraft to conduct evasive maneuvers.”
Additionally, a Russian pilot placed their aircraft in front of the Reaper and engaged the fighter’s afterburner, impacting the MQ-9’s operations.
“These events represent a new level of unprofessional and unsafe action by Russian air forces operating in Syria,” U.S. Air Forces Central Command (AFCENT) says in a statement.
The video’s release comes almost four months after a Russian Su-27 collided with an MQ-9 as it was dropping fuel on the Reaper, causing the drone to crash into the Black Sea.
It is another in a line of incidents in the Middle East, which prompted AFCENT to deploy an undisclosed number of F-22s to the region in June. AFCENT’s boss Lt. Gen. Alexus Grynkewich has repeatedly accused Russian aircraft of unsafe and threatening actions against the U.S., coming on a weekly to daily basis. He says typically Russia sends air-to-ground and air-to-air fighters together near U.S. locations.
These jets “are not just passing through. They fly into airspace that is normally under the deconfliction protocols that are supposed to be where we are primarily operating,” he says.
