“Let the Americans make claims, as we used to say, to the Chinese laundry”
A large American MQ-9 Reaper attack and reconnaissance drone made a sharp maneuver, went into an uncontrolled flight, lost height and fell into the Black Sea, the Ministry of Defense reported. The pair of Russian Su-27 fighters that were alerted did not use weapons against the drone and did not come into contact with it. Dmitry Koposov, a former military fighter pilot, ex-pilot of the Swifts aerobatic team, told MK about how events could have developed on the morning of March 14 over the Black Sea.
— Why do civil aircraft avoid getting into a wake, a wake (air current in the form of an air vortex descending from the wing, stabilizer, fuselage, other bearing and control surfaces of the aircraft) after the Boeing 777 or Airbus A380? Dmitry Koposov says “Because they have a very strong turbulent wake behind them. The heavier the aircraft, the more intense the turbulence.
If we consider an aircraft with a relatively small mass, like the Su-27 and all its further modifications, the intensity of their turbulent wake depends on maneuvering. For example, if an aircraft weighing 30 tons maneuvers with an overload of 5-6 units, then its wake intensity will be the same as that of an aircraft weighing (30 times 5) — 150 tons.
According to Koposov , in such a wake, an unmanned aerial vehicle, and even with a straight wing, with a wingspan of 20 meters, can be destroyed.
— A transponder is a transceiver device that sends a signal to the air traffic service. Thanks to him, controllers see the aircraft on their locator screens. They know about its flight course, tail number, speed, at what altitude it is, and so on. Military aircraft also have such transponders, but when performing combat missions, they do not turn it on, so that it would be harder for the enemy to detect it.
Drones the size of the MQ-9 Reaper also have transponders because they fly at the same high altitudes as civil aviation aircraft.
— According to international rules, if such a drone flies in neutral waters, the transponder it must be enabled. In this case, the operator turned it off so that the controllers would not see the MQ-9 Reaper. This is a violation of flights in neutral waters, especially since he followed international routes. Therefore, our fighters flew out to see what kind of aircraft it was. What if it's some kind of bomber flying in our direction?
— We are talking about the mode of use of airspace within the boundaries of certain areas. This refers to areas located near the zone of the special operation. These are areas of airports in Simferopol, Belgorod, Voronezh, Lipetsk, Kursk, Rostov-on-Don, Taganrog, Krasnodar. This is all the airspace over these areas, where flights were limited since the beginning of the special operation. And in such an area where flights are prohibited, an unidentified flying object appears …
— What if this is some kind of civilian aircraft, whose navigation has broken down and has 200 passengers on board? Therefore, at first, fighters flew up to him to see what it was flying. And then everything was done very competently.
The Americans say that the maneuvers of our S-27s led to the fall of the drone. One of the fighters allegedly opened a dump valve and doused the drone with fuel, the jet from which damaged the main rotor of the MQ-9 Reaper.
Honored military pilot, Major General Vladimir Popov, who once headed the Federal Aerospace Search and Rescue Service, says that initially a large American strike and reconnaissance drone flew in automatic mode, according to the program.
— The drone operator took control over yourself, — explains the major general. — And then our pilots on the Su-27 worked, they could, for example, pass close enough, 10-15 meters above it. Turn on the simultaneous afterburner (enhanced engine operation), and before that, dump the fuel.
The MQ-9 Reaper's engine may have gone awry. Prior to that, he worked in cruising mode, and then, in order to get away from persecution, they began to transfer him to the maximum. We wanted to maneuver. This played a cruel joke on the drone.
If we also take into account that he was a strike reconnaissance, it is possible that he still had something hanging on board. And everything that hangs on suspension points gives additional resistance. Losing maneuverability. All this could affect his handling. MQ-9 Reaper lost stability in the air masses. Apparently, the drone operators were not prepared for this development.
— Let them make claims, as we used to say, to the Chinese laundry. This is their right. For some reason, we do not send our strategic drones to the area of the exclusive economic zone of the United States. And they send almost 7-10 thousand kilometers. They will now say that they worked from the southwestern or southeastern part of Europe, from Greece or Italy. And why did they climb into the restricted flight zone? Let us be told.
The MQ-9 Reaper got close enough to the Crimean peninsula, was about 60 kilometers southwest of Sevastopol before the crash.
— Of course, — says the lieutenant colonel Dmitry Koposov. — It stores flight routes in its memory, at least the last route. Then, the information collection data is transmitted not only via telemetry, but also stored in memory, in its “head”. Therefore, the state — the owner of the UAV — in case of loss of control over the aircraft, does everything to destroy the data that is stored in its memory. The Americans are now saying that we will not find anything there. Our guys parry, they say we'll find something, but we won't tell you.
— Quite possibly. And a cinematic explosion, when debris is flying to the sides, in this case could not have happened. Two or three blocks of memory are critical there. The explosion could be such that only a light smoke comes out. Or there was some other physical destruction of memory.