The US military released footage Thursday of the Russian military intercepting its drone over the Black Sea, showing a fighter jet spraying fuel on the aircraft, which is then seen with a blade of damaged propeller.
The declassified video footage released on the US Armed Forces Europe Command website lasts 42 seconds and shows a Russian Sukhoi-27 passing twice just above the drone, after approaching it from behind.
The Reaper MQ-9 fell in international waters after being hit, according to Washington, by a Russian fighter. Moscow admits the interception of the aircraft by its fighter jets but denies any contact that would have led to the crash.
This is "a reckless and dangerous action," said Secretary of State Antony Blinken, visiting Addis Ababa.
On the first pass, no shock is visible between the two devices, nor anything that seems to justify the fall of the drone.
The maneuver "disrupts the video transmission", comments the site of the American army in Europe, which notes that the propeller of the drone "can be seen and remains intact".
During a second passage, without it being established whether it is the same hunter or a second one, the maneuver is similar but the device passes even closer to the drone.
Image transmission is then interrupted for 60 seconds. When it resumes, "the propeller can be seen again and we can see that one of the blades is damaged", notes the US Air Force.
The "maneuver is frankly borderline", told AFP a fighter pilot of a European army, stressing that, according to the rules in force usually, an interception in the sky by a combat plane is done "in parallel" of the intercepted aircraft and never at such a close distance.
On Tuesday, General James Hecker, commander of US air forces in Europe, said a Reaper MQ-9 carrying out "routine operations in international airspace" had been intercepted by Su-27 fighters and then "rammed by a Russian aircraft, resulting in the crash and loss" of the drone.
While acknowledging that two fighters had come to intercept the drone, Russia claimed not to be responsible for its fall.
It is the first time since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022 that a NATO country has admitted losing equipment operated by itself in this highly flammable region.
Moscow claims to want to fish out the drone to prove, in its view, the involvement of the United States in the operations in Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said one of the causes of the incident was the "strengthening" of American spy operations.
Washington has however indicated that it has taken measures to protect potential sensitive data still present in the device.
"We are confident that what used to be valuable is no longer valuable," said US Chief of Staff General Mark Milley.
The skies of the Black Sea are the scene of very regular interactions between drones and aircraft from NATO countries and the Russian armed forces, especially since the start of the war in Ukraine.
The United States uses Reaper MQ-9 drones for surveillance, intelligence gathering and strikes. Several aircraft have been lost in recent years, including one shot down by a surface-to-air missile over Yemen in 2019, according to US Central Command.
16/03/2023 15:57:52 - Washington (AFP) - © 2023 AFP
