US says drone downed in Black Sea may never be recovered

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The US may never recover a drone that operators crash-landed in the Black Sea following a collision with a Russian fighter jet, the White House said Wednesday.

"I'm not sure that we're going to be able to recover it," National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said during an interview with CNN, adding the unmanned MQ-9 Reaper fell in "very deep water.”

"We're still assessing whether there can be any recovery effort mounted. There may not be," he said.

The US has "taken steps to protect information" on the drone, as well as to "minimize any effort by anybody else to exploit that drone for useful content," Kirby said, acknowledging that US efforts are not foolproof.

"We did the best we could to minimize any intelligence value that might come from somebody else getting their hands on that drone," he added.

The US is working to declassify imagery from what it said was an "unsafe" Russian intercept of an American drone above the Black Sea that led to the aircraft's downing.

The incident occurred after two Russian SU-27 fighter jets "conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept" of a US MQ-9 Reaper on Monday, including dumping fuel on the drone and flying in front of it "in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner," according to the US' European Command.

The drone was conducting reconnaissance when one of the SU-27 jets struck the propeller of the MQ-9 Reaper at roughly 7.03 a.m. CET (0603GMT), prompting the drone's operators to bring it down in international waters.

Pentagon spokesperson Gen. Patrick Ryder said Tuesday the Biden administration is now in the process of declassifying "imagery associated" with the incident, including video, as Russia said the American aircraft went into an uncontrolled flight, lost altitude and fell into the Black Sea following what it said was sharp maneuvering.

The Kremlin denied its aircraft came in contact with the drone. But Ryder said the SU-27 that crashed into the MQ-9 "likely" suffered damage but was able to land at an unspecified site following the incident.

Asked if the US assessed that the collision occurred due to an accident on the part of the Russian pilot, Ryder said "we are continuing to assess exactly what happened but I think based on the actions of the Russian pilots, it's clear that it was unsafe, unprofessional."

"I think the actions speak for themselves," he added.