Reaper Drone Update

Lies, Damned Lies and the USA

My recent article “Don’t Fear the Reaper?” talks about the video released by the USAF purporting to show an Su27 dumping fuel as it climbs behind the Reaper Drone that went down over the Black Sea.

This is a good example of how propagandists can trick your eyes. And why you should never trust CNN or MSNBC.,

Only a small part of the video footage from the drone is shown —and that is carefully edited.

There are just three scenes.

Two are views of a fighter climbing with a plume of gas from its engines.

Ah! The fuel dump, right?

If your eyes don’t lie, that is. But maybe they do, as every stage magician knows.

The other scene is of the rotor of the drone turning slowly, as if, y’know, something is not quite right.

The always excellent Simplicius notes that at least one person thinks one of the props is bent. That’s an assumption that is generated by that sense of ‘not-quite-right”. Look again. The prop blades are all intact. And it is the video moving slowly — not the blades— unless they were feathered, which is unlikely.

So what about that “fuel dump”?

One commentor on a Sputnik News article, which came out after mine, and is named suspiciously (LOL) “Don’t Fear the Reaper”, notes that the fuel jettison valve for an Su27 is BETWEEN the engines. Fuel is NOT jettisoned directly from the engines themselves—although a fighter aircraft in intercept mode might well jettison fuel on approach to a target to improve handling in the air.

What you really see is just an Su27 climbing behind the drone. As it climbs, hot gas from its engines reacts with cold air and forms contrails. All very normal.

Another theory presented in the Western media is that the Su27s overflew the drone and the exhaust from their engines and flying surfaces destabilized the drone. This is unlikely because the Reaper is a very large drone designed for high altitudes where winds can vary quickly from 50mph to 250 mph.

The aircraft would have to get very, very close for the turbulence bump to have any effect. We have all been on passenger aircraft when the ride gets bumpy. Something like that.

In any case, the video proves nothing because it doesn’t show what happened after the Su27s climbed to intercept altitude, just the first few seconds before engagement.

Keep in mind the drone, while capable of autonomous flight, was likely piloted for this mission – remotely, of course, but still piloted.  What did the pilot do?  Did he or she panic?  Who was this person?

Comments by the USAF and others using this video are disinformation, an attempt to create a story. Milley and Austin were lying through their teeth.

The USAF did not show the entire video footage from the drone because that, most likely, would blow holes in their story. Naturally, you will never hear the drone pilot’s story,

Lies, damned lies, and the US of A.