And jet russo collided in the sky over the Black Sea with a US reconnaissance drone, which crashed in international waters shortly after 7 am on Tuesday. The Russian Su-27 involved in the accident hit the propeller of the MQ-9 Reaperthe Pentagon explained, forcing the pilots operating it from the ground to drop it into the Black Sea.
According to a US official quoted by the Cnnthe Reaper and the two Su-27 Flanker jets were operating in international airspace over the Black Sea when one of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of the unmanned aircraft and dumped fuel. A jet then damaged the propeller on the rear of the Reaper, forcing the US to shoot down the drone, which was not recovered. According to the Pentagon, the Russian Su-27 was also “probably damaged” in the collision.
Russian reconstruction also came in the evening. The American drone would have been located on Tuesday morning “near the Crimean peninsula, towards the border of the Russian Federation,” said the Moscow Defense Ministry. «The aircraft was flying over the Black Sea towards the border with the transponders switched off. At that point the Russian air force fighters tried to identify the intruder, but did not use weapons and did not come into contact with the American drone, which lost control and altitude and ended up in the water at the end of a sharp manoeuvre”.
After the incident, NATO military commander General Christopher Cavoli suffered informed the thirty states that are part of the Atlantic Alliance. «Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, an accident which resulted in the loss of the equipment», specified US Air Force General James Hecker, head of the US Air Force in Europe and Africa.
The Russian fighter jets flew close to the US drone over the Black Sea for “about 30 to 40 minutes before colliding,” Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder explained. “This incident follows one pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots interacting with US aircraft and allies in international airspace, including over the Black Sea,” wrote US Eucom, the US command for Europe, in a statement. «These aggressive actions by the Russian crew are dangerous and could lead to incorrect ea calculations an involuntary escalation».
Similar incidents have been frequent for at least a decade, noted Rand Corporation researcher Dara Massicot, who has analyzed dozens of cases and believes that the clash between the Russian jet and the American drone is part of the “coercive signals” that Moscow sends to its allies, particularly in the Black Sea and in the Baltic, and that it replicates its modalities. But today’s is the first direct confrontation between the United States and Russia since the beginning of the conflicteven if in the skies of the Black Sea the Allied aircraft – which closely monitor the conflict – and the Russian ones have constant interactions.
There have been other wiretaps, National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, but this is notable because it was «dangerous and unprofessional. In that sense it was unique. We don’t know what the intention of the Russians was », he added, « but if the message was to exercise deterrence against our overflights in international airspace over the Black Seaor our navigation in international waters on the Black Sea, is doomed to fail.”
The president of the United States Joe Biden he was informed of the incident in the morning, Kirby said, adding that the State Department will speak with the other party and raise “strong objections” to the Russian ambassador to Anatoly Antonov, who was summoned Tuesday afternoon, “about what was clearly an unsafe and unprofessional interception” by a Russian aircraft. At the same time, State Department spokesman Ned Price said, US Ambassador to Moscow Lynne Tracy filed a formal protest to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
«I want to emphasize that the Russian pilots acted very professionally, there was no contact and there was no use of weapons,” Ambassador Antonov replied during the half-hour meeting in Foggy Bottom with Karen Donfried, deputy to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. «The Russian Federation considers the incident with the American drone a provocation in the skies above the Black Sea. Russia is not seeking confrontation with the United States», added the diplomat, underlining the need for Washington and Moscow to act «very carefully» after the latest events.
Since well before the invasion, Western countries have intensified patrols with radar and electronic warfare aircraft, aircraft capable of following the movements, intercepting communications, monitoring the activities of the Russians from a great distance. The flights remained outside the borders of Ukraine and in the international “space”, many also departed from the Sigonella base in Sicily. Numerous drones are used: they ensure long-lasting missions and the fact that they do not have a pilot on board decreases the impact in the event of an “accident” or risky situations such as the one that occurred in these hours in the Black Sea.
Together with the aeronautical component there is that – equally important – represented by spy satellites. NATO intelligence assistance has proved crucial in parrying blows and facilitating operations of the Kiev army indicating weak points, deployments, presence of specific departments. For this reason, a mechanism has been created to make the passage of information from the alliance to the resistance fluid and rapid through secure channels. At the same time they are numerous close encounters also in other chessboards. Often Russian aircraft were intercepted by the Americans off the coast of Alaska, as well as by the Allies in the regions of Northern Europe.