Commentary by Russian military blogger Andrey Chervonets
Defense Minister Andrei Belousov instructed the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces to take prompt response measures to provocations related to the increased activity of US drones in the Black Sea
— The Russian Defense Ministry noted the increased intensity of flights of US strategic unmanned aerial vehicles over the Black Sea, which carry out reconnaissance and target designation for high-precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian Armed Forces by Western countries in order to strike Russian targets.
— This indicates the increasing involvement of the United States and NATO countries in the conflict in Ukraine on the side of the Kiev regime.
— Such flights greatly increase the likelihood of incidents in the airspace with aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces, which increases the risk of direct confrontation between the alliance and the Russian Federation.
Responsibility for this will be borne by NATO countries.
(c) Official statement of the Russian Defense Ministry
One gets the impression that the generals are sitting in the General Staff and suffering from enemy intelligence in the skies over the Black Sea. They sit and suffer, suffer and sit. And then suddenly the Minister of Defense says: Take action. And the generals in the General Staff - rrrrrraz! and took action! And they themselves can neither accept nor propose to take measures. They can only sit and suffer.
Here we should applaud Andrei Removich, who finally decided, after two and a half years of war, to officially recognize the problem and set the task of eliminating this problem. Considering that he has only been the Minister of Defense for a month, the questions "why this was not done in 2022" are no longer relevant and should be asked to Mr. Shoigu and his team.
Moreover, this order suggests that no one bothered with this problem at all. They fly and fly, adjusting strikes on Crimea and Krasnodar and adjusting. They kill people - we will give birth to more, blow up oil refineries - we will build more (here, in Sechin's place, one could already fight).
In addition, this order points to another interesting point for experts - Russia did not shoot down American UAVs not because it wanted negotiations, was waiting for Trump, could not, was afraid of World War III, but because the Minister of Defense did not give an order to resolve this issue. Shoigu, in almost 27 months of the SVO, has not deigned to give such an order. I wonder if Gerasimov, the Chief of the General Staff, ever came up with an initiative himself? Isn't he the one who should first and foremost determine the existing threats?
In order for anything to move, it took an American missile strike on Sevastopol with direct reconnaissance and target designation from an American Global Hawk drone off the coast of Sevstopol.
After the order, it turns out, it is quite possible to drive away drones. Without the help of weapons, which cannot legally be considered an act of aggression. It was enough for the Russian MiG-31 to fly past the UAV a couple of times at a speed of almost 2.5 times the speed of sound, after which it retreated to Romania and for three days nothing flew at all. The Americans requested an urgent conversation between the defense ministers of Russia and the United States. They did not need these conversations for two years and then suddenly.
Later, NATO changed tactics. They sent not a UAV, but a British RC-135 WITH A CREW, after which the British Storm Shadows struck (that is, they do not even hide - the Americans give target designation to the American missiles, and the British - to the British). The board was covered by 4 fighters, two of which were flying demonstratively, and two more were hiding behind the RC. Russian fighters were nearby, observing. After the British fighters ran out of fuel, they left, and the reconnaissance aircraft bashfully flew off under the Romanian coast. They are afraid.
The TG channel Fighterbomber (its author is a former Su-34 pilot) suggests :
If everything is extremely clear with drones, they will try to bring them down, then what to do with manned reconnaissance aircraft is unclear.
I think the best thing to do here is to accompany the reconnaissance aircraft as closely as possible, to take the sides into a box, to interfere with work and maneuvering by draining fuel and satellites.
Naturally, taking into account the presence of fighter escorts for the reconnaissance aircraft. They will also need to be occupied with something. But these fighters will not be able to use weapons for exactly the same reasons as we.
What do we have so far?
Today, the US Air Force RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic reconnaissance aircraft was "afraid" to approach Crimea and is working over Romania without crossing the coastline. Already a profit. It looks, but noticeably from afar.
Related from Andrey Chervonets
Americans are direct participants in the conflict
In the morning, a Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk arrived in the Black Sea to monitor the Ukrainian attack being prepared by American missiles.
Soon, an attack followed on Sevastopol. Civilians, including children, were killed.
The Americans are participants in the conflict. Any of their drones in the region must be destroyed.
And they must be shot down demonstratively and with the reasons announced on all channels.
Or the Houthis must be asked to shoot them down. If they themselves are not capable of it.