Video Shows Russian Fighter Jet Damaging U.S. MQ-9 Drone Over Syria

The U.S. military has released footage showing a Russian fighter jet damaging an American drone in Syria after flying "dangerously close" to it.

The Russian jet was "harassing" the drone and "deploying flares from a position directly overhead," the U.S. Air Forces Central said in a statement on Tuesday, leaving just meters between the unmanned aerial vehicle and the piloted aircraft.

It is the latest in a string of military encounters between Russian and U.S. aircraft in the skies above Syria, as tensions mount over the war in Ukraine. Several times this month, the U.S. has said Russian jets have acted in an "unsafe and unprofessional manner" against U.S. assets in Syria.

Three incidents were reported in just three days. On July 5, the U.S. said three Russian fighter jets had harassed three MQ-9 drones during operations against ISIS targets. The following day, the U.S. said Russian aircraft had dropped flares in front of MQ-9 drones. On July 7, during an "almost two-hour encounter," Russian aircraft "flew 18 unprofessional close passes," the U.S. military said, causing MQ-9 drones to "react to avoid unsafe situations."

There was another incident on July 16, the air force said, when a Russian Su-35 jet forced a U.S. MC-12 aircraft to fly through its wake turbulence.

In the latest encounter, which took place shortly after midnight EST on Sunday, "one of the Russian flares struck the U.S. MQ-9, severely damaging its propeller," the air force said.

The statement issued on Tuesday added that the drone's operating crew had managed to keep it in the air and "safely recover the aircraft to its home base."

In unclassified footage posted to social media by the U.S. military, the Russian jet approaches the drone as it is filming. A grainier clip then shows the Russian aircraft letting off flares. The U.S. also published images of the damaged drone.

The Russian jet showed a "blatant disregard for flight safety," the U.S. said, and that such behaviour "detracts from our mission to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS."

"We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior."

In a media briefing on Tuesday, Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said: "The Russians know where we operate. There's no excuse for how their forces continue to harass our MQ-9s after years of U.S. operations in the area.

"I can't speak for the Russians and why they're continuing to engage in this unsafe, unprofessional behavior, but we are seeing, I would say, an increase in that."

General Mark Milley, the U.S.'s top soldier, said earlier this month that there had been "a bit of an uptick, but I wouldn't overstate it too much."

"As to reason why there's a little bit of an uptick, I'm not really certain. We've got analysts trying to figure that out," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a media briefing.

"I don't know if it's connected to Ukraine or not. Right now, there's nothing to suggest that it is," he added. "But we are adequately protected and our focus is always on our own force protection."

The U.S. military has not specified a location for the latest incident, but Russia's Defense Ministry released a statement on Sunday about a "near-midair collision" of a U.S. MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle "with Russian warplanes near Al-Bab," a city northeast of Aleppo.

Russian fighter jets "demonstrated high professionalism" and avoided collisions with U.S. drones, an official said in remarks reported by state-run news agency Tass.

"If it desired, Russia could shoot these aircraft down via missiles or guns but instead appears to merely exhibit dangerous harassment," retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Jeffrey Fischer told Newsweek on Tuesday. "Without question, Russia's actions are escalatory."

Newsweek has reached out to the Russian Defense Ministry for comment via email.