Russian officials on Wednesday said they intend to recover the debris of the US MQ-9 Reaper drone that was downed in the Black Sea on Tuesday after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets.
“I don’t know if we can recover [it] or not, but we will certainly have to do that, and we will deal with it,” said Nikolai Patrushev, the secretary of the Russian Security Council. “I certainly hope for success.”
US officials suggested they’ve taken steps to prevent Russia from recovering the drone. “Without getting to too much detail, what I can say is that we’ve taken steps to protect our equities with respect to that particular drone, that particular aircraft and its United States property,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the National Security Council.
Kirby doubted that the US would be able to recover the drone, which was downed somewhere near Crimea. “It has not been recovered, and I’m not sure we’re going to be able to recover it. I mean, where it fell into the Black Sea, very, very deep water,” he told CNN. “So we’re still assessing whether there can be any kind of recovery effort mounted there. There may not be.”
A spokesman for US European Command told Fox News that the US currently doesn’t have any Navy ships in the Black Sea. But there are several NATO countries with Black Sea coasts, including Romania, Bulgaria, and Turkey. A US official told The New York Times that the drone had taken off from a base in Romania.
Patrushev also said on Wednesday that the drone incident was more “confirmation” that the US was directly involved in the war in Ukraine. The US insists the drone was on a routine “surveillance flight,” while Moscow said the MQ-9 entered an area that Russia closed off without its transponder on.
Other Russian officials said the MQ-9 was collecting targeting data for Ukraine’s armed forces. It’s not clear what exactly the drone was doing, but Ukraine does rely on coordinates provided by the US for its rocket strikes against Russian soldiers and other targets.
The US and Russia have made conflicting claims about Tuesday’s drone downing. The US insists a Russian fighter clipped the MQ-9s propeller, forcing it down, while Moscow said the drone crashed into the water after being intercepted due to a “sharp maneuver” it made.
The US has vowed to continue flying surveillance flights in the sensitive area despite the risk of a major escalation with Moscow. “So make no mistake, the United States will continue to fly and to operate wherever international law allows. And it is incumbent upon Russia to operate as military aircraft in a safe and professional manner,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Wednesday.
Obviously. There would be no reason to bring it down by such crude methods. Last US drone over Crimea was simply hacked and landed. Reaper probably have some more advanced control mechanisms. Learning about it would cripple Pentagon drone capabilities globally.
We simply don’t know how it was brought down – However I’m doubting that the prop was clipped.
If it was shot down, there would be no debris to recover.
Fair point – but in self defense they might as well.
How can you doubt the video evidence?
My internet signal is too weak to stream video’s – do you have a link or was it the one from RT?
Wasn’t in the Anti-War piece?
Not that I’m aware of, but there’s something posted on RT about US claims that RF fighter jets dumped fuel on the drone as the cause for it to crash into the sea.
After what the US did to China’s weather balloon or to the Northstream pipeline it should not expect that it’s military drones will remain unscathed when it deliberately passes into the territories not under under their control.
Many people have mentioned the following before and it’s worth repeating.
Nobody elected the US to police the world.
… and Ms Nuland promising to to rocket Crimea. You’re so right, it’s hard to believe they should have the face to lie in such a palpable fashion.
Never forget all Neocons are Straussians aka masters in the philosophy of deception.
Zionist are also Straussians – Nuland however is all of the above and qualifies imo as a long term Mossad agent.
Agreed. But in actual daylight the Straussian “noble lie” appears shockingly pusillanimous –sacrificing millions and immiserating billions to preserve the piles of Mark Zuckerberg et al.
You already know why they get away with it telling their lies – simply because other members of their cabal own the MSM and get to decide what will or won’t be published or broadcasted for that matter.
The media fails to live up to its presumed function plus there’s another side I discovered listening to one of Ralph Naders recent podcast – when a reporter does ask the right questions they are quite simply ignored – which means that they’ll end up not being able to present anything to their editors and subsequently won’t be paid. [Reporters and thus the reason why they’re referred to as stenographers] have to present something that is agreeable to their editors.
I much prefer to read from writers who tell it like it is.
Yes, the fatal flaw in all our armor is that we have to eat, … have to secure the means of our own survival. It’s the old moral casus of the overloaded life-boat. But US and Western European citizens are all rich. We don’t need to throw Muslims, and Ukrainians, and Iranians, and N. Koreans, … overboard in order to survive.
If it was was brought down. I’m not dismissing remote possibility of an accident. Granted, MQ9 is not Fail35 but no equipment is perfectly flawless.
There’s a short piece on RT where the US claims the Russian jets flew close, climbed and dumped fuel over the drone.
Pentagon releases video of doomed drone chased by Russian jet{RT]
What did they hope to accomplish with this latest provocation – Escalation?
The US pops a harmless Chinese weather balloon while a US military drone fully capable of firing missiles flying over an area that it really shouldn’t be in is A) provocative on it’s own and B) openly begging to be taken down.
What are they going to claim, innocent right of passage?
Yeah I’ve seen it. Looks like ace flying to me. The idiots at the Pentagon can’t even come up with a good lie.
Ditto – the plane’s colors don’t match.
Looks like you were wrong. It did clip the prop. Unless that is some really good video editing by the Pentagon to match their narrative. I’d say it simply another highlight of incredible skill of Russian pilots.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9d63f60ee8fc9f410a02ea494e46303491a932ffb9665b391effda77cef80e48.png
All good – by clipping I presumed that they made contact – However – the video appears edited what might be a logical explanation for the missing stripes on the prop, I would find it hard to believe that it was all washed of because of fuel.
Unlike a harmless weather balloon – You and I both know what the US military drone fleet is capable of – imo – better safe than sorry when encountering these drones.
At the time of writing it was early days – Last time I checked DC was claiming that a Russian jet dumped fuel causing it to crash.
If it was brought down and not a staged event then the drone simply becomes a sacrificial flying lamb which is entirely possible considering what this ilk has proven capable of in the past.
Remember Syria – the US and the RF briefed each other regularly on what they would do next so they would not unexpectedly encounter each other on the ground or in the air.
I could mention a lot more however for the moment I won’t.
The US has no legitimate interests in the Black Sea near Crimea and no reason to operate surveillance aircraft there, unless they are actively aiding the Ukrainian military, in which case Russia has every right to bring it down. Kirby can go eat a bag of d!cks. He looks as though he’s had lots of practice.
Well said, well said. 🙂
“Kirby can go eat a bag of d!cks.” Thanks a lot, Javy! I can’t close my eyes anymore. All I can see is this sleazeball choking on them things! Ugh. How am I gonna sleep tonight? (Sarcasm alert)
We shoot down any balloons, Chinese maneuverable ones to Amazon hobby balloons but Boris is being naughty over a military drone surveillaning them while in a hot war?
ZaSu is getting the vapors over the hypocrisy…
International law. UNCLOS defines territorial waters and EEZ. US uses “international” spaceously. Nobody can take this seriously. Drone was in EEZ. zone, which for all military planes, drones or ships means using transporders and notifying under “innocent rights of passage” UNCLOS provision. But US does not do that and all around the world disrespects countries by having warships pass through their EEZ.
“Kirby doubted that the US would be able to recover the drone, which was downed somewhere near Crimea. “It has not been recovered, and I’m not sure we’re going to be able to recover it. I mean, where it fell into the Black Sea, very, very deep water,” he told CNN. “So we’re still assessing whether there can be any kind of recovery effort mounted there. There may not be.””
It’s always entertaining to watch John Kirby dance his fast shoe shuffle and two step.
My guess is the Russians already have the debris. The are giving the U.S. the runaround saying that they “hope” to retrieve it.
Even if they retrieve the data, there won’t be a big surprise that the Russians don’t already suspect to find.
Those drones will need escort fighters going forward. Cause Russia has made their intentions very clear that they won’t tolerate sneaky drones without active transponders.
Hmmm I don’t see Romania or Bulgaria or even turkey for that matter going near Crimea to recover that drone.
It does seem unlikely.
However, given the claim that it went down in international waters, anyone else who tries to recover — that is, steal — it might get the same treatment the drone did.
Here is the footage of the highly skilled Russia pilot slamming the Drone that the Kremlin claims went down on its own.
Note: the camera going rainbow indicates the contact.
https://youtu.be/01PJ3DfcjMI
To me, the entire “footage” appears to be a video game. There is no way a pilot would maneuver his aircraft in a manner to cause a collision.
Nah. They just gave it deep cleaning with jet fuel. Too bad its Chinese motherboard didn’t survive. (Sarcasm alert)
Such flights are intelligence-gatherings for a potential Ukrainian invasion of the Crimea but only if the Ukrainian army can first push the Russian army out of the Donbas. Hence the Russians may want to know the pictures and movies taken by that drone.
The decades-long and creeping control of the Black Sea by NATO was the principal trigger for the taking of the Crimea with its naval base at Sevastopol. Russia will not give it up without a major war.
The isolation of Russia is not one on land but on water. The Baltic Sea. The Black Sea. The Arctic Ocean. The Northern Pacific.
A total water-isolation of Russia is an extremely costly military and intelligence affair which NATO and the EU may not be able to afford.
And then there is the concept of international waters. That was based on the distance of Krupp’s naval cannon in the 19th century. Today there are no international waters any more. Because of the range of missiles every spot on Earth can be a potential launching pad for an attack on any country. The concept which our government claims is a fantasy.
Not to mention illegal – which is why that is not how it is going to be effectuated. The way Russia is being isolated is by denying them access to western insurance (perfectly legal) and western shipping (again perfectly legal) while requiring ships sailing goods (especially oil) to be properly insured.
This isolation has been quite successful – as can be seen from Russian oil trading at below the price cap set by the EU and by the Russians complaining about Russian exports of non oil-products effectively being hit by sanctions which is why they were reluctant to extend the arrangement allowing Ukrainian grain exports – as theirs were still not reaching customers.
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-says-it-shows-goodwill-extending-grain-deal-2023-03-14/?rpc=401&
This reminds me of Gary Powers and the U2 incident.
Russia seems to think that the intelligence being gathered could be salvageable. Kirby’s choice of words “that particular aircraft and its United States property” seem to verify their suspicions. The “property” of concern would be the intelligence, not the drone, or any missiles it may have been carrying.
It seems likely that drones, etc. these days have failsafe mechanisms to e.g. wipe stored data if they go down. Of course, failsafes could fail to be safe.
But, assuming that military equipment is subject to constant modification and improvement, it’s not out of the question that there are devices on the drone that haven’t previously come into the possession of foreign powers and that the US regime would like to protect.
I happen to have known someone who got badly injured after going into North Korea to destroy “sensitive” stuff on a downed US aircraft. Of course, that was back in Kim Il Sung’s day. Presumably self-destruct has gotten better since then.
I agree. And yet, I’ve seen reports that Russia is already undertaking salvage operations near Snake Island. I wonder if the pilot may have been so focused on saving the aircraft that he/she didn’t have time to implement failsafe measures.
I can’t remember where I read it. But one of the biggest fears is that Russia could learn how to hijack control of drones used in future missions by analyzing the software of the fallen drone.
remember 2 weeks ago when “russia is getting drone technology from Iran!”
hilarious, right? sometimes i say ridiculous things just to hear myself speak.
even more hilarious when my wife, my mama and my kid all tell me to “shut the eff up dad!”