US drone, Russian jet collide over Black Sea: Does this mean more trouble near war zone?
US drone, Russian jet collide over Black Sea: Does this mean more trouble near war zone?
The tensions between the United States and Russia are rising. There’s an increased risk of a confrontation between the two nuclear powers over the war in Ukraine. In the first direct clash since the invasion, a Russian jet dumped fuel on an American drone over the Black Sea and then collided with it, causing the unnamed aircraft to crash, the US military has said.
Moscow has a different story to tell and denied that the two aircraft made direct contact.
What happened over the Black Sea?
Russian and NATO aircraft, manned and unmanned, often fly nearby around Ukraine’s coast – it’s more like a show of strength but they avoid clashes. However, this changed on Tuesday when a Russian fighter jet reportedly forced down a US Air Force drone, MQ-9 Reaper, by damaging its propeller.
According to the US, the drone was on a routine mission in international space when it was intercepted by two Russian SU-27 aircraft. One of the Russian jets intentionally flew in front of and dumped fuel on the unmanned drone several times, a statement from US European Command said.
Two #Russian Su-27 aircraft conducted an unsafe & unprofessional intercept with a @usairforce
intelligence, surveillance, & reconnaissance unmanned MQ-9 aircraft operating w/in international airspace over the #BlackSea today. https://t.co/nLuJy2Awbe@DeptofDefense @NATO pic.twitter.com/f0njn4gzSj— U.S. European Command (@US_EUCOM) March 14, 2023
The Russian jet hit the propeller which prompted US forces to bring down the MQ-9 drone. Pentagon spokesman Brig Gen Patrick Ryder added Tuesday that the Russian aircraft flew “in the vicinity” of the drone for 30 to 40 minutes before colliding just after 7 am Central European Time, reports CNN.
The incident lasted about 30 to 40 minutes, but there was no direct communication between American and Russian militaries during the time, Gen Ryder said. US officials say they believe the Russian Su-27 jets involved “likely” suffered some damage, indicating that a collision was not deliberate, reports the BBC.
The US military called the move “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional”.
America summoned the Russian ambassador in Washington, Anatoly Antonov, to protest against the move.
Why was the US drone near the Black Sea?
MQ Reapers are used by the US for both surveillance and attacks. They have been observing Russian naval forces for a long time over the Black Sea.
According to the Pentagon, it was conducting intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance activities. The said aircraft would probably be utilised for gathering intelligence about the war in Ukraine, which is one of the most significant contributions of the West to Kyiv's effort to resist invading Russian forces, reports The Economic Times.
US National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters they 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.”
“If the message is that they [Russia] want to deter or dissuade us from flying or operating in international airspace over the Black Sea, then that message will fail because that is not going to happen,” Kirby told Voice of America.
The US has been tightlipped about where the drone landed or if the Russians were trying to recover it. America would not want such sensitive surveillance technology to fall into Moscow’s hands.
According to the BBC, audio recordings on social media indicate a Russia recovery operation but it is not confirmed. If Russians get their hands on the drone, it will give them a boost.
What is Russia saying?
Russia has denied its role in the downing of the role and said that the US aircraft crashed after a “sharp manoeuvre”. “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 defence ministry said.
It said that the MQ-9 Reaper drone was flying with its transponders – communications devices that allow the aircraft to be tracked – turned off.
After being summoned to Washington, Russian state media quoted Antonov as saying that Moscow saw the drone incident as “a provocation”. He met with Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Karen Donfried, who protested the “unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of the drone.
“We consider this incident a provocation,” Antonov told reporters after the meeting. He said he told Donfried that US drones, planes and ships had no business being that close to Russian borders, according to a report in RT, a state-controlled network.
“Could you imagine what the reaction of the US media or the Pentagon would be if such a drone would appear near New York or San Francisco?” he asked.
The US and Russia need to be “extremely cautious” how they act, given the current situation in Eastern Europe, he added. He also told Donfried that Moscow is seeking “pragmatic relations” and not conflict with the US, RT reports.
Also read: Will the Russia-Ukraine conflict end in 2023?
What does this mean for the war?
Since the invasion of Ukraine, the US and the United Kingdom have stepped up reconnaissance and surveillance flights but have always operated in international airspace. Tuesday’s incident is the first time Russia and US military aircraft have come in direct contact with each other since the Ukraine conflict started last February.
US military commanders warned in their statement that Tuesday’s act was and “could lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation”.
According to the US, there has been a “pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots” interacting with allied aircraft in the region, the BBC reports.
The encounter could have been a mistake by a Russian pilot, but if it was a deliberate attack then this could amount to a huge provocation and a substantial escalation, the report says. If that is the case, it would be seen as an attempt by Moscow to test Washington’s response.
The Guardian quotes a 2021 report from American policy think tank Rand Corporation, according to which, Moscow uses “coercive signals” to send “targeted messages regarding activities that it finds problematic”.
Dara Massicot, one of the report’s authors, wrote in a Twitter thread, “We’ve done research on Russian coercive signaling, which today’s MQ-9/SU-27 incident was. It’s a close pass that went bad.”
Sometimes the coercive signal is something like this: the plane will come up to interrogate the target, shadow at a distance, with wings clean (no missiles) but increasingly with wings dirty (with missiles) as our bilateral relations have deterioriated, and it will leave. pic.twitter.com/1fnwmBxm6u
— Dara Massicot (@MassDara) March 14, 2023
“Sometimes the coercive signal is something like this: the plane will come up to interrogate the target, shadow at a distance, with wings clean (no missiles) but increasingly with wings dirty (with missiles) as our bilateral relations have deteriorated, and it will leave,” she said. “Sometimes, usually after other methods were used, Russian signalling would shift to something unsafe and unprofessional to compel a change.”
According to The Guardian, Moscow is trying to keep US aircraft and boats away “from the fringes of the Ukraine war, where Russia’s invasion remains stalled and hugely costly, and Ukrainian forces are benefiting from US intelligence support”.
US Marine Corps Gen David Berger said scenarios like the downing of the drone are some of the US military’s greatest worries because of the unpredictability of the chain of events they could trigger in their wake.
With inputs from agencies
Read all the Latest News, Trending News, Cricket News, Bollywood News,
India News and Entertainment News here. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
What's Your Reaction?
