US officials think Russia has sent ships to the drone crash site. The United States claims it ditched the surveillance drone in the Black Sea after a Russian Su-27 fighter aircraft doused it with fuel and then struck its propeller.
The United States claims that the drone that crashed into the Black Sea after colliding with two Russian fighter aircraft will provide no useful intelligence should Moscow attempt to recover its wreckage.
The MQ-9 Reaper that was shot down on Tuesday, according to Russian officials, will be recovered in whatever form remains.
Sergei Naryshkin, the director of Russia’s foreign intelligence service, stated that his country possessed the technological means to recover the drone’s fragments, which are believed to be located off the Crimean peninsula’s western coast.
According to US officials, Russia has already dispatched ships to the area.
General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared unconcerned at a Pentagon news conference. About the possibility of finding the $32 million drone.
He stated, “We will engage in recovery operations. This is US territory. However, it likely broke up. Honestly, there is probably not much to recover.
“About the loss of sensitive intelligence, etc., we would adopt mitigating measures, which we did. Therefore, we are quite confident that anything of value has lost its value.”
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the US would “take steps to protect the information”. And “minimize any effort by others to exploit that drone for useful content.”
The US military has acknowledged in the past that it is possible to remotely remove sensitive information from the drone and render its systems inoperable, even though officials have refused to disclose how the Reaper will be secured.
In international airspace, a Russian Su-27 fighter aircraft poured fuel on a U.S. surveillance drone before striking its propeller, according to the United States. Officials in the United States are working to declassify drone surveillance footage to prove this.
Russia denies responsibility for the mishap, escalating tensions between the two nations.
