What happened between Russian jets and American drone over the Black Sea?
An American MQ-9 Reaper drone crashed over the Black Sea following an accident with two Russian Su-47 fighters. Washington and Moscow give two different versions of what happened. All the details
On Tuesday, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone in international airspace over the Black Sea, the US military announced.
THE VERSION OF RUSSIA
Moscow has given a different version of the story, claiming that the two Russian planes that flew over the area did not come into contact with the American drone and did not use any weapons. According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the drone would in fact have gone "into uncontrolled flight" following a sharp maneuver, losing altitude and finally falling into the water.
THE US VERSION
According to the United States, however, the drone – which according to General James Hacker, commander of the American armed forces in Europe and Africa, "was carrying out routine operations in international airspace" – was flanked for about thirty minutes by two Russian fighters; one of the two planes would have dumped fuel on the aircraft and the other would have hit it.
However, Washington did not accuse Moscow of intentionally hitting the drone, but judged the maneuver by the two fighters "irresponsible".
KIRBY'S WORDS…
John Kirby, spokesman for the US National Security Council, said that since it began its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly carried out interceptions similar to the one on Tuesday in the Black Sea area, in international space, although not so dangerous.
… AND THOSE OF THE RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTRY
According to Russia's Defense Ministry, the American drone was flying in an area that Moscow had defined as "off limits" because it was involved in the military operation in Ukraine. Therefore, the two Su-27 fighters had had to intervene to intercept it.
ALL ABOUT THE MQ-9 REAPER DRONE
The United States uses MQ-9 Reaper drones for both surveillance and strike operations, and has deployed them in a variety of locations, including the Middle East and Africa. Other countries, including Britain and France, also have these models.
The United States has lost several MQ-9 Reaper drones in recent years, including due to hostile actions. For example, one was shot down in 2019 in Yemen with a surface-to-air missile launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who fired on a second drone a few days later, but to no avail. In 2019 a US MQ-9 Reaper was lost in Libya, another crashed – also in this country – in 2022 and yet another crashed during an exercise in Romania in early 2023.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/incidente-russia-stati-uniti-drone-mar-nero/ on Wed, 15 Mar 2023 07:45:32 +0000.