HomeInternational GeopoliticsRussian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: Report

Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: Report

Source : CBS News

Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: Report
Representative images of a Russian Su-27 jet and a US MQ-9 Reaper drone. A Russian Su-27 jet and a US MQ-9 Reaper drone collided over the Black Sea on Tuesday. ( Image Source : Getty Images )

Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: Report

A Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with an American military drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, the U.S. said. The collision made the drone “unflyable” and officials crashed it into the sea, the Pentagon said. The White House called the Russian plane’s intercept of the unmanned aircraft “reckless.”

“Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9,” U.S. Air Force General James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a statement.

“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash,” Hecker said.

Two Russian fighter jets were involved in the incident, U.S. European Command said. At approximately 2:03 a.m. EDT Tuesday, one of the Russian jets struck the drone’s propeller.

“Because of the damage, we were in a position to have to essentially crash it into the Black Sea,” Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters during a Pentagon briefing. “… It essentially ran into the MQ-9.”

Before the collision, the jets dumped fuel on the drone and flew in front of it “in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner,” European Command said.

The Russian jet was likely damaged in the incident but it did land afterward, said Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman. He wouldn’t say where the jet landed.

Ryder, who wouldn’t say whether the drone was armed, referred to the unmanned aircraft as a MQ-9, but not a Reaper. The U.S. uses MQ-9 Reapers for both surveillance and strikes and has operated the drones in a variety of locations, including in the Middle East and Africa. Other countries, including Britain and France, also fly Reapers.

Reapers can be armed with Hellfire missiles as well as laser-guided bombs and can fly for more than 1,100 miles at altitudes of up to 50,000 feet, according to the Air Force.

The drone in Tuesday’s incident was conducting an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance mission, Ryder said, adding that he didn’t have any details to provide at the time on a possible operation to recover the drone.

“To my knowledge at this point in time, the Russians have not recovered that aircraft,” Ryder said.

He also said officials were reviewing imagery from the incident to determine if any can be released.

Moscow, for its part, denied causing the drone to crash.

“As a result of sharp maneuvering … the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle went into uncontrolled flight with a loss of altitude and collided with the water surface,” the Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement, adding that the two Russian jets had no contact with the U.S. aircraft and did not use their weapons.

The Defense Ministry also called the drone an “intruder” that was heading toward Russia’s border. Ryder told reporters the drone was operating in international airspace over international waters.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year has led to heightened fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the NATO alliance, which has been arming Kyiv to help it defend itself.

Reports of a missile strike in eastern Poland in November briefly caused alarm before Western military sources concluded that it was a Ukrainian air defense missile, not a Russian one.

The State Department said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest Tuesday’s intercept.

“We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned U.S. aircraft,” spokesman Ned Price told reporters.

Russian intercepts in the Black Sea area are common, but this one “is noteworthy because of how unsafe and unprofessional it was, indeed reckless that it was,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told journalists.

Kirby said President Biden had been briefed about the incident.

“We don’t need to have some sort of check-in with the Russians before we fly in international airspace. There’s no requirement to do that, nor do we do it,” he added.

Democratic Sen. Jack Reed, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Russia’s behavior “reckless and inept.”

“This pattern of Russian provocation must end,” Reed said on Twitter.

Sen. Roger Wicker, the committee’s top Republican, said the incident “makes clear that Vladimir Putin is an adversary.”

“This incident should serve as a wake-up call to isolationists in the United States that it is in our national interest to treat Putin as the threat he truly is,” Wicker said. “Putin wants nothing more than for incidents like these to push the United States away from our support of Ukraine and prevent us from rolling back his destructive policies.”

Several U.S. MQ-9s have been lost in recent years, including to hostile action.

One was shot down in 2019 over Yemen with a surface-to-air missile fired by Houthi rebels, who also unsuccessfully fired on another of the drones a few days later, U.S. Central Command said.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Aatmanirbhar Bharat

All

Small cap Aerospace & Defence Enters Into Agreements With DRDO

Small cap Aerospace & Defence company Apollo Micro Systems Limited on Sept 23, 2023, informed that it has signed multiple agreements with the Defence...

Larsen and Toubro (L&T) hands over upgraded Cadillac Gage V-150 and V-300 Armored Vehicles to Vietnam

Source : Frontier IndiaLarsen and Toubro (L&T) hands over upgraded Cadillac Gage V-150 and V-300 Armored Vehicles to VietnamThe Philippine Ministry of Defence is...

AMCA 5th Generation Stealth Fighter Updates

Most Popular

Recent Comments

Archive Months

Miscellanous

We want to make India a manufacturing hub, says PM Modi at SCO summit

Source : The StatesmanPrime Minister Narendra Modi attends the 22nd Meeting of the Council Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), in...

‘No one can take an inch of land’: Home Minister Amit Shah hits out at China in Arunachal Pradesh

Source : Business Today'No one can take an inch of land': Home Minister Amit Shah hits out at China in Arunachal Pradesh Home Minister Amit...

IAF may go for 6 more EMB-145 aircraft based Netra Mk 1 AEW&CS : Fabrication of 6 Netra Mk2 Radar Antennas starts

Source : Indian Defence Updates (IDU)India's first indigenously designed AEW&C system Netra Mk-1, which is incorporated into an Embraer EMB-145The DRDO’s Center for Airborne...

UK company launches new tethered UAV

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || ).push();...

Army to buy next generation armoured recovery vehicles for plains and mountains

New Delhi: The Indian Army plans to procure 170 tracked Armoured Recovery Vehicles (ARVs) to operate in plain, semi-desert and desert terrain along with...

India to test 10,000 km range Agni-VI ICBM in 3 yrs

Source : Bombay TribuneRepresentative ImageNew Delhi: Taking lessons from the ongoing war between Ukraine and Russia, India has intensified preparations to start testing the Intercontinental...

Indian Navy unlikely to drop Project-75I submarine program, mandated clause of AIP may be withdrawn

Source : Indian Defence Updates (IDU)File photo of the Induction of 5th Project-75 Scorpene (Kalvari class) class submarine INS VagirThe Indian Navy is unlikely...

India will not allow China’s unilateral attempt to alter border: EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar

Source : Press Trust of India (PTI)External Affairs Minister S JaishankarIndia will not allow any unilateral attempt by China to change the status quo...

The Next Generation: An overview of Indian Navy’s surface fleet plans

Source : Overt DefenseRepresentative ImageIndia’s defence budget for 2022-23 had allocated a record amount of $6.19 billion for capital procurement by the Indian Navy,...

Taiwan-China Faceoff: India urges for ‘Restraint, Avoidance of Unilateral Actions’

Source : RepublicMEA Spokesperson Arindam Bagchi briefed the media about India's stance on the China-Taiwan conflictAs the Taiwan-China faceoff continues to escalate, India, on Friday,...

Bharat Forge develops 120km range rocket assisted hypersonic projectile

Source : IgMp BureauRepresentative ImageA 155-millimetre cannon rocket-assisted artillery round with a 120-kilometre range is being developed by Bharat Forge. It has a rocket motor built...

First Airbus C-295 aircraft for the Indian Air Force gets IAF grey paint scheme before first flight in Spain

Source : Indian Defence Updates (IDU)First Airbus C-295 aircraft for the Indian Air Force gets IAF grey paint scheme before first flight in Spain Airbus...

India now defence exporter, import cut down by 21% in 5 years: PM Modi

Source : The PioneerPrime Minister said that the goal of self-reliance in the defence forces is very important for India of the 21st century,...

India taking control of Israel’s ‘Strategic’ Haifa Port is a part of new evolving regional strategy to keep China at bay

Source : The EurAsian TimesA consortium of Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) and Israel’s Gadot Group acquired the Haifa port for roughly...
Visits

Adblock Detected

Please consider supporting us by disabling your ad blocker

Refresh Page
error: Content is protected !!
%d bloggers like this: