That’s an MQ-9 Reaper drone, of the kind commonly used by the United States in targeted killing campaigns. The video, uploaded to YouTube by the Russian Defense Ministry today, was filmed from the inside of a Russian jet cockpit, and you can see the pilot in the cockpit’s reflection. The video is captioned simply and in English: “The presence of aerial vehicles in the air space of Syria has increased.” To prevent their air forces from fighting each other (and perhaps accidentally provoking World War III), the Pentagon and Russia are talking to each other about “deconfliction,” or the careful art of making sure each country’s airplanes don’t run into and attack each other. Just in case, it appears that the Department of Defense is advising American pilots to not react to aggressive Russian jets. In the case of the Reaper, this is easy. The pilot, remote in a control console, likely can’t even see the jet through the Reaper’s forward-facing camera, and the sensor operator is probably looking for a target on the ground. They might not even know how close the Russian plane was. Watch the full clip below:
