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I'm having trouble finding this in anything I would call a reliable source, or even in many sources at all. All I can find is your source and the source it references (some website called "Bulgarian Military" which isn't affiliated with said military). The incident, if it happened at all, seemed to involve an F-35 out of Italy and not Bulgaria, so I don't know why a Bulgarian website is the only source supporting the idea that the F-35 was intercepted by an Su-30. Another source, which I also have no reason to think is reliable, is "
theaviationist", which claimed that the Su-30 was escorting an An-12 that two F-35s were sent to intercept. In that reading, the F-35s essentially intercepted the Su-30, and not the other way around. Honestly, until we get some more reliable sources on this, I don't think it should be mentioned in this article or the F-35 article one way or the other. I should add that while both "moderndiplomacy" and "theaviationist" articles use the exact same photo for the encounter, one claims it happened in 2022 and the other in 2021, and the photo itself is just of one of each aircraft on a sky blue backdrop. Not exactly difficult to photoshop a photo like that together from separate photos of the aircraft flying nowhere near each other (or even in the same hemisphere). Without anything reliable, this isn't something we should include. --
OuroborosCobra (
talk)
17:45, 27 August 2023 (UTC)reply
WATCH: Russian Su-30 Fighter Forces F-35 Stealth Jets To Retreat In Their ‘First-Ever Encounter’
These sources suffer from the same problems I've already outlined. The first cites The Aviationist as its source, and so is not any better than what I'd found that used the same photo as your "Bulgarian Military" source, but doesn't even have the event happen in the same year. Your second source is laughably unreliable. It cites an unmanned "military expert" on a Chinese portal that's basically a search engine and gaming website, and also disagrees with the other sources on when this event supposedly occurred, this time saying it was in November 2021 (The Aviationist and EuroAsian Times articles were both published months earlier than the event the "military expert" claims it happened). Additionally, while most of these sources claim the aircraft flew out of Italy, this instead flew off of the HMS Queen Elizabeth. It also claims that the F-35 then crashed, which not all of the other sources claim. So, which is it? What year, let alone month, did this supposedly happen? Did the F-35 crash or not? Did the F-35 fly out of Italy or the HMS Queen Elizabeth? Were the F-35s even intercepted at all, or did they in fact intercept the Su-30s? We have nothing at all meeting the standards or
WP:RS to add to this article about the subject, and so shouldn't say anything one way or another on this. Especially not from an unmanned "military expert" (who could be anyone with a Jane's guide sitting in their basement) posting on a Chinese gaming portal. This is beyond ridiculous, and this discussion should be closed. --
OuroborosCobra (
talk)
19:31, 4 September 2023 (UTC)reply
The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.