I think I know what was the reason for the drone incident:
China, Iran and Russia will hold joint naval exercises. According to the Ministry of Defense of the People's Republic of China, the exercise, called "Maritime Safety Belt-2023," will take place from March 15-19 in the Gulf of Oman.
The one downed was most likely in the vicinity of Sevastopol - a few tens of kilometers max. This must be damn frustrating for the Russians, because the MQ-9 not only sees the ships in port, but sees the details of the operation, the people, the missiles, everything. With details like we see looking out the window. Worse, it hears everything, records phone numbers, network maintenance traffic, procedures, everything. There is no way to hide from it. It's no different at all from when a UAV flies overhead. And it flies nonstop. You can't put off some covert operation or activity because it flies nonstop.
Such long-term reconnaissance allows perfect preparation of an attack or special forces operation and gives great insight into the state of affairs on the Rus side.
Apparently, so much so that Rus reacted in fear of what it would detect.
This is what the reaper is staring at - AN/DAS-4
It could get quite a mess out of this, as the States have to pull it out of the water.
Black Sea does not have actually "international waters". Drones are flying in Turkish and Romanian economical parts.
The USAF has 210 MQ-9s in stock.
PS. orc sources are claiming the incident was below, but I would not trust in it at all. Too close to Crimea, no point for doing it with this equipment and risk getting it into the wrong hands:
I wonder if we ever learn
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It says:
Erdogan said that after Friday's meeting with the Finnish president, Turkey will fulfill its promise regarding Finland's candidacy for NATO membership
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Polish services have broken up a spy network working for Russia. The group was supposed to carry out preparations for diversionary activities in our country. As RMF FM's reporter found out, officers of the Internal Security Agency detained six people in the case, and a security alert was put in place for the net's activities on rail routes and national critical infrastructure.
As RMF FM journalist Krzysztof Zasada determined, the six people detained by the ABW (the Agency of the Home Security) are foreigners from across our eastern border, who were supposed to be working on behalf of Russian secret services.
ABW agents detained them in connection with the discovery of hidden cameras on important routes and railroad junctions, which recorded traffic on the tracks and transmitted the images to the network.
Polskie służby rozbiły siatkę szpiegowską pracującą dla Rosji. Grupa miała prowadzić w naszym kraju przygotowania do działań dywersyjnych. Jak dowiedział się reporter RMF FM, funkcjonariusze Agencji Bezpieczeństwa Wewnętrznego zatrzymali w tej sprawie 6 osób, a w związku z działaniami siatki na...
www.rmf24.pl
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thats it for now
