USAF Reaper Drone Damaged By Flare From Russian Fighter Over Syria
The United States Air Force says that one of its MQ-9 Reaper drones was damaged by a flare deployed by a Russian fighter aircraft harassing the drone over Syria.
During the Sunday incident, the Russian aircraft involved are said to have deployed flares from a position directly overhead the Reaper, with “only a few meters of separation” between the aircraft. According to Central Command, one of the flares struck the MQ-9 and severely damaged its propeller, but the Reaper’s crew managed to safely return the damaged drone to its home base.
In a statement released on Tuesday, 9th Air Force commanding officer and Central Command’s Combined Forces Air Component Commander Lt Gen Alex Grynkewich said:
“The Russian fighter’s blatant disregard for flight safety detracts from our mission to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS. We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior.”
The Sunday incident is the latest in a series of incidents disclosed by the United States and France of Russian aircraft harassing aircraft conducting missions against the Islamic State in Syria since the start of July. These incidents included the July 7 harassment of three Air Force MQ-9s that subsequently killed an Islamic State leader in a strike in eastern Syria, with a July 16 harassment incident of an Air Force MC-12 Liberty aircraft described as “a new level of unsafe and unprofessional actions” after the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft was forced to fly through the wake turbulence of a Russian fighter that passed it at close range.
The incident also follows the Department of Defense announcement of the deployment of Air Force F-35s and F-16s to the Middle East on July 17. While the Pentagon says the deployment of the aircraft alongside Arleigh Burke-class destroyer USS Thomas Hudner, as well as an Amphibious Readiness Group and a Marine Expeditionary Unit are in response to increasing Iranian harassment of civilian shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, a senior US official told Air and Space Forces Magazine that the F-35s could see use over Syria should Russia pose a more “significant” threat.