Russia’s drone attack: Why China could try it next

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The Russians planned the Black Sea drone attack carefully, probably for weeks. And watch out, China could try it next. 

As the admiral played by the late Sen. Fred D. Thompson said to Alec Baldwin’s character in the classic movie “The Hunt for Red October,” “The Russians don’t do anything without a plan.”

Somebody on the Russian side thought this through. Russian combat aviation relies on centralized ground control for radar intercepts of other aircraft. This was not a spur-of-the-moment jaunt by those Su-27 pilots. This was a deliberate, premeditated taunt by Russia.  

I think the Russians watched the flight patterns of the MQ-9 Reapers off and on for weeks, maybe months, before planning this foolish operation. 

US DRONE DOWNED BY RUSSIA LATEST IN PATTERN OF MOSCOW HOSTILE ‘SIGNALING’

American and NATO reconnaissance aircraft are up over the Black Sea area daily. For example, on Monday, the aviation website ItaMilRadar tracked a U.S. Navy EP-3 signals collection plane, a high-altitude U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk drone, and an Italian military reconnaissance plane flying orbits in international airspace over the Black Sea. 

Surveillance planes typically fly a racetrack pattern designed for their sensors to get a steady look at objects on the ground,

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