MQ-9 Reaper collision with SU-27

///AMG said:
Fair enough. I seem to remember the load out being something around 24xJASSM, but I guess 25 has a nice ring to it :)
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Everyone on the targeting cell: “one more shack…. One more shack… Long Rifle! Long Rifle!


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///AMG said:
This is a strange picture. I believe that pylon is specifically for their FLIR pod. As far as I knew, B-1 carried JASSM/JASSM-ER (or LRASM for that matter) on the internal bay rotaries....and many more than 1 in theory
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You're correct that it is odd. The photo is from a test project on an Edwards-based aircraft in 2020 to demonstrate compatibility of externally-mounted AGM-158s. The B-1 originally had six external hard points to hold ALCMs, but after New START in 2011 they were welded shut (except for the one used for the SNIPER pod).

I get the impression the test/demonstration was intended as incremental move away from disarmament after Russia's violation of the INF. Un-welding the lugs would not have violated New START, but I guess it was done in good faith since they were never intended or used for non-nuclear weapons storage.
 
///AMG said:
This is a strange picture. I believe that pylon is specifically for their FLIR pod. As far as I knew, B-1 carried JASSM/JASSM-ER (or LRASM for that matter) on the internal bay rotaries....and many more than 1 in theory
Click to expand...

originally, the B-1B had external racks located in that position for carriage of AGM-69 SRAM nuclear attack missiles or ALCMs, as mentioned, back when the B-1 had a nuclear mission with SAC. The external racks were required to be removed as part of the START treaty when the B-1 also lost its nuclear mission and became conventional only. An external rack reappeared for pod carriage in the 2000s, but was not a weapons carriage rack. This new thing is probably going to go nowhere, as the B-1 is a sunset airframe that I doubt will get money, training, or time put into it to get it back into the SIOP world, with the plethora of things that go into certifying for that mission. There is no corporate knowledge for that mission in tue community left, as the last of the B-1 crew who would’ve done that, have long since retired.
 
Lawman said:
I’m really hoping we declassify the video feed after redacting the critical meta data.

It’ll get called some sort of DCS forgery by the Russian online trolls, but it’s worth showing the world what these idiots do.


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Well, that didn't take long.

 
You can see that one of the propeller blades has been damaged after the second pass.
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Been going on throughout my cognizant lifetime, and that's not a short period any longer. They shadow us; we shadow them (aircraft, ships - remember the Pueblo?, drones). The "game" is literally decades old and WELL beyond the half-century mark, yet somehow we're still here.

USS Pueblo captured | January 23, 1968 | HISTORY

On January 23, 1968, the USS Pueblo, a Navy intelligence vessel, is engaged in a routine surveillance of the North Korean coast when it is intercepted by North Korean patrol boats. According to U.S. reports, the Pueblo was in international waters almost 16 miles from shore, but the North Koreans...
www.history.com www.history.com

www.upi.com

Soviet spy planes intercepted off Massachusetts coast - UPI Archives

Two Soviet spy planes were intercepted about 200 miles off the Massachusetts coast last week by U.S. Air National Guard fighters, officials revealed Tuesday....
www.upi.com www.upi.com
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We need to bring this bad boy back... so other countries can "erratically maneuver while we make a safe and professional intercept"
XP79.jpg
 
Sidebar: It looks like fuel is spraying out the engines and not a dedicated jettison nozzle. I wonder if they are using un-ignited afterburner flow or something.
 
This will happen more. Would it be bad or hard to somehow rig some of these to explode when in very close proximity to a Russian? Like enough explosive to blast the Russian? Or is that just my "Dead Russian war criminals" daydream? I think it'd be fun! And perhaps deter the Russians. Or at least kill them. Either way.
 
Lawman said:

“Unintentional”


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I think Ivan just isn't very good at the flying. Last rational-sounding report I read suggested that they're getting <100 hours/year, and I'd lay good money that zero of those involve a safe intercept of a *much* slower target. Not that they were trying for "safe", in the first place, obviously.
 
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