Hello,
I think this makes 5 drones that have been shot down. Georgia has got to run out of drones.....Update: Georgia had acquired a total of 40 drones, worth around $2 million each, from Israel between 2006 and 2008. So looks like there may be a lot of drones shot down.....
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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Georgia's breakaway region of Abkhazia shot down another Georgian spy drone on Thursday, its Defence Ministry said, although Tbilisi immediately denied the allegation from the Russian-backed rebels. Minutes before the announcement, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had told visiting Russian reporters war between Georgia and Russia over the status of Abkhazia had been only narrowly averted days earlier but remained a real threat. According to the Abkhazian authorities this was the third Georgian drone it had shot down in the last five days.
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Yes I went back and counted: 5 drones shot down, out of total 6 drones spotted. For some reason Abkhazian did not knock down one drone spotted the other day.
Kyle & Svet
comments always welcome.
1 hour ago
6 Comments!:
Could you point, where did you read about 40 items per 2 mln USD?
I searched internet for some time some time ago and didn't find anything precise, probably it was published later...
Hey Peter,
In RIA Novosti:
SUKHUMI, May 9 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's breakaway republic of Abkhazia displayed on Friday fragments of a Georgian surveillance drone it allegedly downed on Thursday.
Abkhazia said it shot down the fifth Georgian surveillance drone since the beginning of the year over the village of Gudava in the Ochamchir district at about 17:10 Moscow time (13:10 GMT). Georgia has denied the report.
"Georgia has repeatedly ignored our warnings, and is deliberately continuing to make the situation worse by risking civilian lives. This is another proof of aggressiveness on the part of official Tbilisi and its reluctance to implement prior agreements," Garri Kupalba, Abkhazia's deputy defense minister, who showed the fragments, quoted from the ministry's statement.
Abkhazia earlier claimed its air defenses had shot down four Georgian surveillance drones this year, two on March 18 and April 20, and a further two on May 4.
The Georgian Foreign Ministry called Abkhazia's claims "absurd," and said they were aimed at escalating tensions in the region. Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili also denied the report on Thursday.
"I have just spoken with the [Georgian] defense minister," Saakashvili told reporters. "No plane has been downed."
Abkhazia and South Ossetia broke away from Georgia in the early 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Between 10,000 and 30,000 people were killed in the Georgian-Abkhazian conflict and some 3,000 in Georgian-South Ossetian hostilities. Georgia is looking to regain control over the two de facto independent republics.
Earlier reports said Georgia had acquired a total of 40 drones, worth around $2 million each, from Israel between 2006 and 2008.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20080509/106987966.html
Kyle
Mr. Saakashvili said Georgia had about 40 reconnaissance drones, which it purchased from Israel and distributed among its police and military commands. “It is a very handy thing in a mountainous country,” he said. The lost drone, he said, belonged to the Interior Ministry.
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/22/world/europe/22georgia.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss
Russia to J'lem: Was downed Georgian drone Israeli-made?
By Barak Ravid ,Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies
Tags: Israel, drone, Russia
A few days after Russia shot down a Georgian unmanned aircraft over the breakaway region of Abkhazia, Moscow has asked Israel to confirm if the aircraft was in fact Israeli made.
The request for information on the drone was passed on to Israeli officials via the military attache in Moscow.
While a security official in Jerusalem has confirmed that the aircraft were in fact manufactured by the Israeli company Elbit Systems, one of Israel's leading defense electronics companies,
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/977390.html
Thank you, the link http://en.rian.ru/world/20080509/106987966.html is what I wanted: I couldn't find clear statements about the price of a unit before and this article is recent (after my searches).
There are very many controversies with the mentioned video. Did you watch it? The landscape displayed does not seem to be relevant, the quality is extremely poor. But the jet looks like Mig-29, though it has no discernible features. And it's very rare decision to try bringing down such a low-speed plane with a high-speed jet.
Hey peter,
Yes I watched the video. I feel the same as you do.
I always say that things are never as they seem and games are played by Governments all the time.
I am glad I got the link you wanted.
Thanks for stopping by.
Kyle
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