Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: US military
Russia has responded after a “reckless” fighter jet forced down a US drone after it intercepted it in international waters over the Black Sea.
A Russian Su-27 jet fighter collided with an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday, causing it to crash, the US military’s European Command said.
“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,” said US air force General James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa.
“In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash.”
The incident happened at around 7am local time (Tuesday 4pm AEDT).
According to CNN, the US unmanned drone was being flanked by two Russian jets over the Black Sea when one flew in front and dumped fuel in front of the aircraft.
One of the jets collided with the drone’s propeller which forced the US to bring it down in international waters.
The US’ National Security Council communications co-ordinator John Kirby said it was “not uncommon” for Russian aircraft to buzz US drones on the Black Sea.
But Tuesday’s incident was unique because the Russian actions were “unsafe, unprofessional and reckless”.
Moscow denied causing the crash of the drone, which the Pentagon said was on a routine ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) mission.
“As a result of a sharp manoeuvre... the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle entered an uncontrolled flight with loss of altitude and collided with the surface of the water,” the Russian Defense Ministry said, adding that the two Russian jets had no contact with the US aircraft and did not use their weapons.
The US State Department said it had summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest. “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 US aircraft,” spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
The US said it will continue to operate drones over the Black Sea.
It is the first time there is known to have be direct contact between a Russian and US plane during the conflict.
US drones have been flying over the Black Sea monitoring the battlefield and Black Sea from as high as 50,000 feet.
Kremlin backed news outlet Russia Today has noted the incident and that last week a US strategic bomber flew close to St Petersburg, the country's second city, although it remained in international waters.
NATO diplomats in Brussels confirmed Tuesday’s incident, but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation.
A Western military source, speaking to AFP on condition of anonymity, said that diplomatic channels between Russia and the United States could help limit any fall-out.
“To my mind, diplomatic channels will mitigate this,” the source said.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year has led to heightened fears of a direct confrontation between Moscow and the Western NATO military alliance, which has been arming Kyiv to help it defend itself.
Reports of a missile strike in eastern Poland in November last year briefly caused alarm before Western military sources concluded that it was a Ukrainian air defence missile that had malfunctioned, not a Russian one.
Originally published as Russian jet collides with US drone over Black Sea: US military
