Watch as a Russian fighter jet crashes into a US Reaper drone cutting its propeller and dumping fuel on it as it flew in international airspace over the Black Sea in incredible footage released by the US military.
- New footage shows the moment a Russian fighter crashed into an American drone
- The United States shot down the Reaper drone over international waters in the Black Sea
This is the moment a Russian Su-27 jet collided in mid-air with an American MQ-9 over the Black Sea.
Drone camera footage released by the US Air Force captures the moment a Russian fighter severed its propeller and dumped fuel on it in international airspace on March 14, 2023.
US forces had to shoot down the drone in international waters after the collision.
This follows Russian claims that its plane did not make contact with the $32 million drone, instead blaming “harsh manoeuvres” for the crash.
Released footage shows the moment a Russian fighter unloaded fuel onto a US drone
The drone was forced to land in international waters in the Black Sea
In the first direct confrontation between Russia and the US since the start of the war in Ukraine, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet struck an MQ-9 drone, forcing operators to dump the drone into the sea. Black.
“It probably sank to significant depths, so any recovery operation from a technical standpoint would be very difficult,” Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley told reporters.
We know the interception was intentional. We know the aggressive behavior was intentional,” Milley said, though it was unclear if the collision itself was deliberate.
Even so, the incident over international waters has raised fears that such a mistake or misunderstanding could trigger an escalation of hostilities.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said he spoke to his Russian counterpart on Wednesday in their first call since October.
“I just got off the phone with my Russian counterpart, Minister Shoigu,” Austin told a Pentagon news briefing.
“As I have said repeatedly, it is important that the great powers be models of transparency and communication, and the United States will continue to fly and operate where international law allows.”
Russia said it made it clear in the call that it sees things differently and that US air operations in the region are a threat.
“It was pointed out that the US strategic lethal drone flights along the Crimean coast were provocative in nature and created the preconditions for an escalation of the situation in the Black Sea area,” the Defense Ministry statement said after the conversation. Shoigu’s phone call with Austin.
Earlier, the Kremlin said it would try to recover the remains of the drone.
According to US officials, the MQ-9 Reaper drone was intercepted by two Russian Su-27 jets that dumped fuel on the drone before cutting off its propeller, forcing it to crash.
I don’t know if we can get it back or not, but we have to. And we will surely work on it. I hope, of course, to succeed,” Kremlin Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told Rossiya-1 television channel, according to Reuters.
However, Milley played down the possibility of losing sensitive technology. She said that she had sunk in four or five thousand feet of water.
‘We don’t have any ships there. But we have many allies and friends in the area who will work through the recovery operations,” he said.
‘That is the property of the United States, and we will leave it at that for now.
But probably broke up. There’s probably not much to recover, frankly,
“As for the loss of anything sensible…intelligence etc…we’d take that as normal, and we’ve taken mitigation measures, so we’re pretty sure anything that was valuable is worthless anymore.”
The Sukhoi Su-27 is a Soviet twin-engine fighter in operation since 1977.
It is used by the Russian Air Force, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force, and others.