PULLING PUNCHES: For the second time in four months, a Russian fighter jet has damaged a U.S. drone conducting a combat mission, and the response from the U.S. has been the same: a stern protest and a call for Russia to cut it out.

“Russian unsafe and unprofessional behavior in the air not only degrades our Defeat ISIS mission, it risks unintended escalation and miscalculation,” said Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, commander of the U.S. Central Command, in response to the July 23 incident over Syria in which declassified video shows a Russian jet dropping flares on an MQ-9 Reaper drone, damaging its propeller.