Republican Senator Mike Rounds described himself as “p—ed off” following the reported collision of a Russian fighter jet with a US military drone.
The US military command alleged on Tuesday that a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on a US drone over the Black Sea, clipped the drone’s propeller and pushed it into the water.
When asked by Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin about his feelings on this, Rounds. RS.D., said he was “turned off”.
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“I mean let’s be honest about this… I’m sorry folks. They shot down an American warplane,” Rounds said at a Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute summit. “They disabled it.”
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Senator Mike Rounds speaks at a Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee hearing in Washington, D.C. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The jet in question was one of two Russian Su-27s flying together when the collision occurred in international airspace over international waters.
The drone’s propeller was damaged, forcing the unmanned aerial vehicle to crash into the Black Sea, west of Crimea, a US defense official told Fox News.
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RUSSIAN JET COLLIDS WITH US DRONE IN INTERNATIONAL AIRSPACE OVER BLACK SEA, OFFICIAL SAYS
An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) is parked in a hangar at Creech Air Force Base on November 17, 2015 in Indian Springs, Nevada. (Isaac Breken/Getty Images)
“So yeah, I’m not very happy about it,” Rounds said. “And the bottom line is we can’t let that happen. This is a case where our allies and our adversaries need to understand that we won’t tolerate this.”
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He added: “I think we’re probably going to have to have a bit of a stronger discussion about how serious this is. You’re not taking our plane off. That’s something that is definitely a violation of international standards, if nothing else. And in this particular case, more needs to come.”
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Senator Mike Rounds addresses reporters outside Senate chambers during a vote at the U.S. Capitol. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Russia denies that the planes hit each other and accuses the US of escalating the matter unnecessarily.
“We assume that the United States will refrain from further media speculation and stop flights near the Russian border,” Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday.
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A Sukhoi Su-27 fighter jet performs at an air show outside Moscow. (Reuters)
He claimed the drone crashed after performing “sharp maneuvers,” Reuters reports.
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and email him at [email protected]
