Croatia criticizes NATO after crash of Russian-made drone

[discocrisco01]

Source: Associated Presss

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatian officials criticized NATO on Saturday for what they said was its slow reaction to a military drone that apparently flew all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over several NATO member states, before crashing in an urban zone of the Croatian capital.

The Russian-made unmanned aircraft crossed Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia and slamming late Thursday into a field near a student dormitory. Some 40 parked cars were damaged but no one was injured after a loud blast.

NATO said the alliance’s integrated air and missile defense had tracked the object’s flight path. But the Croatian prime minister said the country’s authorities were not informed and that NATO reacted only after question were posed by journalists.

“We cannot tolerate this situation, nor should it have ever happened,” Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said while visiting the crash site.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-andrej-plenkovic-romania-nato-hungary-964f59e35e53bfbba1e8805fd9f64de6

[intrepidity]

1. Talk about spillover nt

[NotHardly]

21. NATO ... someone was asleep @ the F*cking wheel

NATO and the EU might want to wake-the-F*ck up a bit before they find Putin crawling up their collective arse.

[SunSeeker]

2. I'm sure Croatia is nervous about the war spreading to their territory.

Croatia has been a member of NATO since 2009. It is odd that NATO did not give Croatia more of a heads up about the drone.

[cinematicdiversions]

3. Croatia is right to be pissed.

Seems like some generals may need to be looked at on both sides.

[paleotn]

5. Nope. Malfunctioning Russian UAV way off course.

Instead of blowing it up, lets see where it lands and make off with it. Even garbage, Russian tech is useful intel.

[Lancero]

7. Except this is a Soviet-era drone, that exited use in 1989. Ukraine re-adopted it in '14.

Nothing really useful to be had from it in a technological sense. And intel wise, again, Russia hasn't used it since 1989.

NATO should have popped the damn thing after Ukraine lost control of it rather than let it crash in a member-nations capital city.

Edit - And the 'But technology!' argument is even weaker since we'd have access to this drone and it's successors from a handful of ex-Soviet nations that have since joined NATO.

[paleotn]

10. Maybe so. I wonder if NATO air controllers knew the type at the time?

Sometimes it's best not to fry it.

[Lancero]

11. You're right, for all they knew it could have been loaded down with high explosives.

But still, isn't that even more reason to shoot the damn thing down, rather than taking the risk of letting it crash into a member-nations capital city? Or, at the very least, let that nation know that they have a unknown, potentially armed, malfunctioning drone flying around in their air space?

[paleotn]

4. Its an unarmed UAV way off course and we want it.

Lets see where it crashes and go pick it up. If we'd shot it down, there might not be much left and Putin would say it was a relief flight full of Russian children. No, his lies don't have to make any sense.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

6. Might be difficult, not to mention kinda disruptive to have missiles and planes firing

at a tiny unarmed low flying off course aircraft.

Was airborne 3 to 7 minutes….the PM of Croatia sees some kind of political advantage with the bellicose statements. Not all NATO leaders are totally sane.

[niyad]

9. erdoghan being the first that popped into my mind.

[muriel_volestrangler]

12. 6 to 7 minutes *over Croatia* - about 40 minutes over Hungary

So, yeah, the Croatian PM is right about this. He's saying NATO and the EU, to both of which Croatia belongs, screwed up.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

13. So, shoot it down? I disagree with the leader of Croatia, and stand with NATO as a whole on this.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. He didn't say "shoot it down"; he said "tell the authorities of the countries it's crossing"

who could then take a decision. But, yeah, shooting it down would have been safer; it damaged cars when it crashed, and that could have been where people were. You don't know what "NATO as a whole" thinks; you know that the NATO personnel on duty that night didn't do much. You're not taking a "stand"; you're giving an fairly uninformed opinion.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

17. Opinions can be shot down as well, but be well armed. 🙏🍺😬

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

22. According to this article it wasn't unarmed

Official: Drone that crashed in Croatia carried a bomb

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A military drone that apparently flew all the way from the Ukrainian war zone over three European NATO-member states before crashing in an urban zone of the Croatian capital was armed with an explosive device, Croatia’s defense minister said Sunday.

The Soviet-made aircraft crossed Romania and Hungary before entering Croatia, slamming into a field near a student dormitory late Thursday. About 40 parked cars were damaged in the large explosion, but no one was injured.

“Traces of explosives and clues suggesting that this was not a reconnaissance aircraft were found. We found parts of an air bomb,” Croatian Defense Minister Mario Banozic said at the crash site.

He said that this further raises a question about whether the drone belonged to Russia or Ukraine.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/official-drone-crashed-croatia-carried-162341026.html

[AllaN01Bear]

8. nobody said how big this machine was and if it were the size of our preditor drones

te brttish developed a tactic during ww2 to knock buzz bombs off course and out of the sky by putting a airplanes wing under the buzz bombs wing and flipping it. very successful. if these are small uavs not so . glad it didnt hurt anyone or kill any one except damage some cars . yea they have right to be upset.

[Alexander Of Assyria]

14. Looked it up...

The Tu-141 was a follow-on to the Tupolev Tu-123 and is a relatively large, medium-range reconnaissance drone. It is designed to undertake reconnaissance missions several kilometers behind the front lines at transsonic speeds. It can carry a range of payloads, including film cameras, infrared imagers, EO imagers, and imaging radar.
As with previous Tupolev designs, it has a dart-like rear-mounted delta wing, forward-mounted canards, and a KR-17A turbojet engine mounted above the tail. It is launched from a trailer using a solid-propellant booster and lands with the aid of a tail-mounted parachute.

With pictures…wonder how it even takes off…looks ancient…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-141

[AllaN01Bear]

18. almost the size of our preditor drones . id still do the anti buzz bomb tactic the brittish invented

in ww2 . thanks for the link.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. From the article:

"Military experts say Ukraine is the only known current operator of the Tu-141, which has a wingspan of nearly 4 meters (12 feet) and weighs just over 6 tons."

[TomWilm]

19. ... but a length of 47 feet

Interesting to see that the united NATO's surveillance and coordination tech behaves as amateurish as Russia's. Everything points to the drone being from the Ukrainian air force - we were all lucky it was lost flying West and not East, or Putin could have gotten some "proof" to his story about an Ukrainian invasion.

[FakeNoose]

20. Isn't it the same drone that a Ukrainian grandma knocked down with a jar of pickles?

What's wrong with the Croatian grandmas? Don't they make pickles?