Due to the approach of the US coalition drones, the Russian aircraft's on-board defense systems worked
Moscow. July 7. INTERFAX - The Russian military announced the risks to the aviation of the American coalition in Syria in the event of uncoordinated flights.
"We remind you that the Russian side is not responsible for the safety of uncoordinated flights of coalition aircraft, especially in the closed zone of the exercises," Oleg Gurinov, deputy head of the Russian center for reconciliation of the warring parties in Syria, said on Friday.
According to him, nine cases of violations of deconfliction protocols by US coalition drones in Syria were recorded during the day, seven of them occurred in an area closed to air flights due to joint Russian-Syrian exercises in northern Syria.
"Of particular concern are two recorded cases of the appearance of unmanned aerial vehicles of the international anti-terrorist coalition MQ-9 on the flight routes of Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft," Gurinov said.
"In both cases, the impact of guidance systems was recorded, which led to the automatic activation of the onboard defense systems of Russian aircraft and the shooting of false thermal targets," he said.
Meanwhile, for the second time in two days, the United States made accusations against Russian pilots in Syria, claiming that they carried out "unsafe maneuvers against American drones."
Commander of the Central Command Air Force (CENTCOM) US Lieutenant General Alex Grinkevich said that on Thursday the American MQ-9 Reaper drone was carrying out a mission to destroy ISIS (a terrorist group banned in the Russian Federation) in Syria when Russian fighter jets approached. According to Grinkevich, "one of the Russian planes began dropping parachute flares in front of the American drone, forcing it to perform evasive maneuvers."
The French Armed Forces also made accusations against the Russian pilots on their social media page, claiming that the Su-35 fighters "unprofessionally interacted" with two French Rafale aircraft that were performing a mission near the Iraqi-Syrian border on Thursday.
According to the French military, their fighters "were forced to maneuver to avoid the risk of an accident."
Meanwhile, on Thursday, the Russian military accused the US-led coalition of violating the borders of an area in Syria closed to flights due to Russian-Syrian aviation exercises.
