- James Landale, Henri Astier
- By BBC reporter from Kyiv and London
image source,Getty Images
The Reaper drone is a full-size aircraft designed for reconnaissance and surveillance (file photo).
The U.S. military says a Russian fighter jet collided with a U.S. drone, which crashed into the Black Sea.
The United States accused Russia of being reckless in the incident.
The incident underscores the rising risk of a direct U.S.-Russia confrontation over the Ukraine war.
The U.S. said the drone was on a routine mission in international airspace when two Russian military planes attempted to intercept it.
Russia said the drone crashed after a “sharp maneuver” and denied there was a direct collision between the two planes.
The Russian Ministry of Defense also stated that the “MQ-9 Reaper” (MQ-9 Reaper, also translated as “Reaper”) drone was flying with the transponder turned off. Transponders are communication devices that allow aircraft to be tracked.
The Reaper is a reconnaissance aircraft with a wingspan of about 20 meters (66 feet).
According to the US military, the incident occurred at 7:03 CET on Tuesday (March 14).
Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, called the behavior of the Russian pilots “unsafe and unprofessional.”
The U.S. statement stated: “Our MQ-9 aircraft was intercepted and collided with a Russian aircraft while it was performing a routine mission in international airspace, causing the MQ-9 to crash and be completely destroyed.”
The statement also said that before the collision, two Su-27 fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone in a “reckless, unenvironmental and unprofessional manner”.
The United States summoned Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, to protest the actions.
After the meeting, Russian state media quoted Antonov as saying Moscow viewed the drone incident as “a provocation.”
A time of security concerns
— Paul Adams, BBC foreign affairs correspondent
The incident appears to be the most significant in an openly acknowledged U.S.-Russia standoff since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than a year ago.
As such, it raises many questions and represents a moment fraught with security concerns.
Could it have been an accident?
Air Force Brigadier General Pat Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, called the behavior of the Russian pilots “unsafe and unprofessional.”
“I think those actions speak for themselves.”
The entire incident lasted about 30 to 40 minutes, according to the Pentagon. Brigadier General Ryder said that there was no direct communication between the Chinese, Russian and US military in the incident.
At the same time, the US pointed out that it believed that the Russian “Su-27” fighter plane was “probably” damaged to a certain extent, that is, the incident was not a deliberate collision.
What impact will such an incident have on the future U.S. drone missions in the Black Sea airspace and on assisting some key reconnaissance missions in Ukraine?
“If the message in this is that they want to deter us from flying or operating in international airspace over the Black Sea,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s strategic communications coordinator, told VOA, ” Then the message will fail because that’s not going to happen.”
It’s not hard to imagine that Russia will want to make this kind of work as difficult as possible for its Ukrainian allies.
Washington has remained silent on the whereabouts of the drone in question, and Brigadier General Ryder has not said where it landed, or whether Russia has attempted to retrieve it — voice recordings on social media suggest that Russia may be conducting some sort of Search for action, but not confirmed.
Clearly, the United States does not want any information on reconnaissance techniques to fall into Russian hands.
This is a delicate moment for a Biden administration determined to stand behind Ukraine.
Helping Ukraine fight Russian aggression is not only weapons provided by the West, but also real-time intelligence on every aspect of Russian military operations, including the movement of ships in the Black Sea and the firing of missiles against various targets in Ukraine.
Whether protecting critical installations or planning a counterattack, Ukraine relies heavily on this constant flow of information.
Washington would want to continue these operations, but would try to avoid using force, or be drawn into a more direct confrontation with Moscow.
An MQ-9 “Reaper” UAV provided by the U.S. Air Force is performing a training mission at Creech Air Force Base in the United States.
Tensions in Black Sea airspace have escalated since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the United States and Britain have stepped up reconnaissance and surveillance missions, although they have been conducted in international airspace.
The key question now is whether Tuesday’s encounter was an attempt by Russia to disrupt the U.S. drone and its work, or to bring it down on purpose.
According to the U.S., the interaction of Russian pilots with aircraft of U.S. allies in the region has formed a “dangerous behavior pattern.”
So, this may just be a mistake by the Russian pilot, getting too close when “approaching” the drone. But if this was a case of Russian warplanes deliberately attacking a U.S. aircraft, that would constitute a major provocation and a real escalation.
In that case, the attack would be seen as an attempt by the Kremlin to test the U.S. response.
Western allies have been working hard to prevent the fighting in Ukraine from escalating into a direct confrontation with Russia, but the incident in the Black Sea is exactly that. The US will now have to assess how to respond.
As U.S. commanders said in their statement, it was a dangerous operation that “could lead to miscalculation and unintentional escalation.”