You're gonna want
to see
this new video
from the Department of Defense,
which shows three
Russian fighter jets harassing U.S.
drones flying over northern Syria
on Wednesday. Morning.
The Air Force says
those drones were monitoring ISIS targets
and you could see them
circling coming close.
And you see it both from a distance,
but also from the camera
mounted on the drone itself.
CNN national security reporter
Natasha Bertrand
has been following the story.
And it's remarkable to watch this.
And it's not unlike what we saw
just a few weeks ago over the Black Sea,
which eventually took that drone,
that US drone down.
How close does the Pentagon say
this came to to taking this one down?
Yeah, Jim.
So the Pentagon is saying
that this was a very unsafe
and unprofessional maneuver
by these Russian jets.
It was three Russian jets
going after these three US drones
that were conducting an anti ISIS mission
over Syria.
And what the Pentagon says
is that no
drones were actually taken down
in this maneuver,
but that they got really,
really dangerously
close to the drones
in a way
that could have posed a risk,
of course, to people on the ground
and to the drone itself.
Now, what we are learning
is that according to this video
that was released by the Pentagon,
the Russian jets approached the drones
and started releasing parachute
flares, ostensibly to block their view.
And one of those Russian fighter jets
then came in front of one of the drones
and engaged its afterburner again
to try to
block its view and force the drone
to take some kind of evasive maneuvers.
Now, these kinds of this kind of behavior
by Russian jets,
it is becoming more common in the region.
We saw just a couple of months ago,
as you mentioned, that Russian jet
take down a drone over the Black Sea.
And it's not only against drones
that these Russian jets
are becoming more aggressive,
according to the top US
commander for Air Force operations
in the Middle East.
These Russian jets
have also been harassing
American manned fighter aircraft.
And what he said is that
it was almost like
they're trying
to dogfight with them in the air.
Jim. So clearly a big concern for U.S.
officials here. Exactly.
I mean, of course,
the difference
you've got a pilot in the air
and then the danger is much greater.
The danger for for escalation.
And others have made the point
Russian pilots
don't
we're not expected to act on their own.
So this would seem to happen
with some approval from higher up.
Another topic if we can attack,
and that is
this new military aid package for Ukraine
that appears
to include these cluster munitions.
Ukraine has been asking for
for some time. Why?
Why now and why is the U.S.
choosing to do this
despite criticism
for the use of these kinds of munitions
Yeah, Jim.
So we are
expecting an announcement
tomorrow from the Biden administration
that they will be providing
a new military aid package to Ukraine
that will
include these controversial
cluster munitions.
And these are controversial
because these are munitions
that when they are deployed,
they scatter bomblets across large areas
and some of those bomblets
can actually fail to explode on impact.
So they leave leave
duds behind that could pose a risk,
a long term risk to civilians.
And we're told that
the Biden administration has changed
its tune
on this over the last several months
because of how the counteroffensive
is not going as fast
as they had anticipated.
And Ukraine is really burning
through artillery ammunitions.
So these cluster munitions could help
fill that gap in ammunition and U.S.
officials say they could actually have
a pretty significant impact
on the battlefield.
Not necessarily a game changer,
but something U.S.
officials say could help
Ukraine make more progress Jim.
It appears the argument here is to
you've got all these trenches
there, you've got soldiers dug in.
It's a way
to go
after those many thousands,
many tens
of thousands of Russian soldiers dug in.
Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon,
thanks so much, Brianna.
All right.
We have CNN military analyst, retired
Major General
James Spider Marks
with us to go through some of this.
He is the head of the geopolitics
Strategy and Academy Securities.
Thanks for being with us.
We're looking
at these controversial cluster munitions
here.
Just talk to us a little bit
about the capability.
Yeah,
this is what we call a dual
purpose, improved conventional munition.
And it's a it's a bomb that goes off,
but then
it spreads these bomblets over
a much larger area.
And these are improved in
that they can go
after tanks
and armored vehicles
as well as personnel.
Depends upon what ignites those
The challenge always is
that these become very, very dangerous
from the human interest capacity.
What's going to happen to the civilians
after the fighting subsides?
We have video of that.
Let's look at that from the work
that we were looking at
from early on in the war.
You can see what happens with civilians.
It's it's tough.
Are you worried about that?
Well, of course,
you have to worry about that.
But what the United States does
when we use
these ICBMs
is we register where we use them.
And then after the fighting
will mark that area off
and we will clear that out.
I'm not saying
that other nations will do that.
That's why
there's over
120 nations that say,
no, we should not use this
these types of munitions
because of the danger
it poses to the civilians.
We suspect that is not happening
on either side in this conflict.
Would that be fair to say?
Absolutely. Okay.
So Human
Rights Watch, by the way,
calling for both Russia
and Ukraine to stop using them.
I want to turn back to these Russian jets
that we are seeing harassing U.S.
drones over Syria
and some pretty incredible video
that we are getting here
in these latest this latest encounter.
Tell us what you're seeing
and why this is so alarming.
Well, this is the Reaper drone
that's taking.
This is the Reaper drone right here.
This is the Su 35,
the Russian aircraft,
the attack aircraft.
First of all,
the imagery is quite phenomenal.
The capabilities of the Reaper,
not only can they do
great intelligence collection,
they also can do attack
very precise attack missions.
So when you see this type of proximity
in the air,
it's incredibly dangerous
not only to the Russian pilot,
but also
to this capability that the United States
is using
for intelligence collection at the
This is the Russian jet.
Just a closer look at it, if we can.
And we may recall as well.
Back in April,
this also over Syria,
which prompted a bit of a U.S. response.
You can see this Russian jet engaging
with U.S.
fighter jet. Right.
This is incredibly,
as they've said,
the kind word is this is unprofessional.
It's unprofessional.
It's incredibly dangerous.
It is amazingly provocative.
And this is when accidents occur.
If you're looking for
the spark that ignites
this greater conflagration
that's going to occur.
These are the things that happen.
This will turn into an accident.
This will cause some young pilot
who is protecting his or her space.
And then they're going to engage.
They understand the rules of engagement.
They understand what
the do's and don'ts are.
But you end up with mistakes
when you have this type of proximity,
you're really challenging restraint.
And then we saw a few weeks ago, the U.S.
actually sent an F
to rafters to the region
because of this unprofessionalism
as you saw it.
And I wonder what you think
about sort of the buildup
that we're seeing in the region
when it comes to these capabilities
and whether this is even working
as a deterrence.
Well,
I think it
clearly works as a deterrence
when the United States
shows up with an F-22 Raptor.
I mean, this is as good as it gets.
The Russians understand that this hasn't
necessarily been there before,
that we're aware of.
So is it an escalation?
Yes.
And I,
I think it sends a very powerful message.
This is not what you guys want to do.
And this is not the aircraft.
You want to mess with.
Don't be provocative with the F-22.
But don't be provocative.
All right.
We'll see if the message is received.
General Marks.
Great to have you on this. Thank you.