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17-03-2023
WASHINGTON: The United States military has released footage it says is of an unsafe interception of a US drone by a Russian jet over the Black Sea.
The US on Tuesday alleged that a Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck one of its Reaper drones during a surveillance and reconnaissance mission, forcing US operators to bring it down in international water. Russia denied it deliberately brought the unmanned aerial vehicle down.
The declassified 42-second footage released by the US European Command shows the Su-27 fighter jet approaching the back of the MQ-9 drone and dumping fuel near it, in what US officials said said was an apparent attempt to blind its optical instruments.
The released excerpt also shows the loss of the video feed after another close Russian manoeuvre, which the Pentagon said resulted from the Russian jet’s collision with the drone. It ends with images of the drone’s damaged propeller, which the Pentagon says resulted from the collision, making the aircraft inoperable.
Russia has denied US accusations that its jets acted recklessly in what was the first direct US-Russian incident since the war in Ukraine began last year. Instead, it has blamed “sharp manoeuvreing” by the drone for the crash, claiming its jet did not make contact.
Commenting on the video, Samir Puri, a visiting lecturer in war studies at King’s College London, said he did not think it was possible to determine with certainty whether the encounter was intentional or accidental.
“If the Russian pilot intended to physically knock out this drone, as in fly so close to it to actually touch his own aircraft, that’s an extremely risky manoeuvre for that pilot,” he told media.
“I still think on balance this may have been something that Russians would do to pass very closely, to demonstrate, of course, that they want to show that they have mastery over these skies and that the Americans, they can’t fly these intelligence flights undisturbed.”
While intercept attempts are not uncommon, the incident amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has raised concerns it could bring Kyiv backer Washington and Moscow closer to direct conflict.
Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley on Wednesday spoke to their Russian counterparts, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Chief of Russian General Staff General Valery Gerasimov, about the incident.
The Russian defence ministry, in its report of the call with Austin that Shoigu, accused the US of provoking the incident by ignoring flight restrictions the Kremlin had imposed because of its military operations in Ukraine.
Russia also blamed “the intensification of intelligence activities against the interests of the Russian Federation”.
Such US actions “are fraught with escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area”, the ministry said, warning that Russia “will respond in kind to all provocations”.
Recovery of a US surveillance drone that crashed after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets would be challenging given the deep waters in the Black Sea, a senior United States general said, as reports emerged of Russian vessels at the crash site.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said remains of the uncrewed MQ-9 Reaper drone, which the US claims was brought down by one of two Russian Su-27 jets clipping the drone’s propeller, sank in waters as deep as 1,219 to 1,524 meters (4,000 to 5,000 feet).
Moscow which denies that its jets were in physical contact with the drone – said it would try to retrieve the drone wreckage as reports emerged on Thursday of US officials confirming that Russian ships had reached the crash site. (Int’l News Desk)
