Ukrainian credibility

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True.

As they are pretty old, malfunction is very likely.

Some funny-scary stories about malfunctioning old equipment during military exercises come to my mind, back from peacetime. A small rocket was launched but instead of taking off, it dropped on the ground and started intensively smoking... everyone took cover and no one was harmed but, well, that's how old equipment can behave.

I can't wait to see the results of the investigation.

This is a hazard of war----random rockets just firing just for the heck of it.

It would make zero sense for Ukraine to just up and attack Croatia. I would say it was a (potentially tragic) accident.

It was stated that this rocket was only used by Ukraine. For some reason, it adopted this rocket after Russia annexed Crimea.

The TU-141 is from the mid 1970s.

Could it be that the invading Russian army stole the drone and crashed it into Zagreb intentionally, to try to stir the pot on Ukraine so to speak?

It's one of the possibilities.
We may never know for sure, war is a mess.

Also Crotia use to be part of the former Yugoslavia which the Soviet Union considered an ally back then. Would the Russians have any motive connected to that, to do this possibly?

The USSR and Yugoslavia were never good buddies.

Marshall Tito, its major autocrat, staked out a path relatively independent from the USSR, though the results were similar.

Croatia is in NATO and the EU.

Last edited by kraftiekortie on 15 Mar 2022, 9:44 am, edited 3 times in total.

I don't think so.
All the region used to be Soviet "allies", or rather pawns.

So far, malfunction of old equipment seems to meet Occam's razor the best - until new data emerges, of course.

Strange it wasn't shot down earlier. Croatia does not border Ukraine but Hungary does... though they have Orban who almost cheers for Poo Tin.
I hope Polish border has better anti-aircraft systems.

They are attempting to upgrade some of the older weapons.
https://thebulletin.org/premium/2022-02 ... k_02232022

The altitude was relatively low----about 4,000 feet max. Maybe it was too low to be detected?

If a rocket or drone is shot in my direction, I'd like it detected anyway.

Of course! Me too!

I'm not making light of what happened. It's extremely troubling.

I was trying to arrive at the reasoning behind why it wasn't detected. This has to be corrected.

Definitely possible. Aircraft can't be detected below a certain altitude because they're beneath the effective radar coverage. That's why cruise missiles and strike aircraft usually fly just above treetop height.

That's where Piorun comes handy.

The Budapest Times article mentioned in the middle of something I posted yesterday looks at that toward its end,
https://www.budapesttimes.hu/world/hung ... in-zagreb/

Article page isn't allowing copy and paste; it mentions several times Hungarian Air Force fighters, the quite capable SAAB Gripen from Sweden, were sent out to investigate radar contacts but didn't sight the contact.

Because I'm a fan of SAAB aircraft here's their page about Gripen,
https://www.saab.com/products/air/fighter-systems

And a SAAB press release form January this year specifically about Hungary's aircraft,
https://www.saab.com/newsroom/press-rel ... ipen-fleet

And it's not like the Hungarian Air Force was inexperienced with the airplane,
https://www.saab.com/newsroom/stories/2 ... r-15-years

Definitely. Any sort of MANPADS helps provide coverage where larger, radar controlled systems can't.

And drug dealers.