![]() While the SU-27 can bristle with up to 10 air-to-air missiles and was designed to gain air superiority in a full-scale war with Nato, the MQ-9 was a product of the “war on terror”, first flying in 2001 and developed after the US saw the need for a more powerful version of the smaller Predator drone. If the US chose, it could arm the MQ-9 with heat-seeking AIM-9 missiles, that are also capable of shooting down Russian aircraft, although the drone was most likely conducting reconnaissance from its vantage point 15km above Earth. Armed with a 30mm cannon that can fire up to 1,500 explosive rounds per minute, the Flanker is more than capable of using weapons to shoot down a slow-moving MQ-9. First flying in 1977, the SU-27 was developed to counter the US F-14 Tomcat and the F-15 fighter-bomber. Tuesday’s aerial clash was a confrontation between aircraft from two different eras. ![]() Could the MQ-9 drone shoot down an SU-27 Flanker? Last year, a US Congressional Research Service report quoted US expert Michael C Horowitz, who argued that “states distinguish between the shooting down of manned and unmanned systems”, suggesting that such actions fell below the threshold of war. This makes any US measures to retaliate against Russia unlikely. While the downing of the RQ-4 near Iran provoked Mr Trump, many analysts say the entire point of an unmanned aircraft is to reduce the risk of serious escalation. Will the downing of a US drone lead to war? Other US drones have been lost to anti-aircraft fire in Yemen and Syria, including at least one MQ-9. President Donald Trump reportedly considered bombing several targets in Iran, saying that the Iranians had made “a very big mistake”, before deciding not to escalate. The plane is designed to stay aloft for up to 30 hours, beyond the limits of most manned aircraft, and being capable of surveying up to 100,000 kilometres a day.Īn RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aircraft like the one shown is currently flying non-military mapping missions over South, Central America and the Caribbean at the request of partner nations in the region. The RQ-4 has a wingspan of 40m, almost 10m longer than a Second World War B-17 bomber, but the loss of one of the aircraft raised questions as to how it could survive a high intensity conflict with a US adversary. Footage of the blazing $130 million drone plummeting to earth was later released by Iran. The US said it was “an unprovoked attack on a US surveillance asset that had not violated Iranian airspace”. The lumbering RQ-4, one of the largest drones in the world, was downed near the Straits of Hormuz by a Khordad surface-to-air missile at a time of high tension between the US and Iran. Only the most dramatic of these incidents, the loss of an RQ-4 to an Iranian missile in June 2019 led to the threat of retaliation. The US has lost at least six drones to enemy action, including the latest downing of the MQ-9 reaper. ![]() Why then, has there been so much concern and what does the US military say about the loss of drones in hostile situations? How many US drones have been shot down? Ukrainian soldiers fire a howitzer towards Russian positions, near Bakhmut in Ukraine. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |