Posted on 03/16/2023 4:33:39 AM PDT by tlozo
US General Mark Milley said the MQ-9 Reaper drone sank in an area of the Black Sea where depths are up to 1,500 metres.
Recovery of a US surveillance drone that crashed after being intercepted by Russian fighter jets would be challenging given the deep waters in the Black Sea, a senior United States general said, as reports emerged of Russian vessels at the crash site.
Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley said remains of the uncrewed MQ-9 Reaper drone, which the US claims was brought down by one of two Russian Su-27 jets clipping the drone’s propeller, sank in waters as deep as 1,219 to 1,524 meters (4,000 to 5,000 feet).
“It probably sank to some significant depths, so any recovery operation from a technical standpoint would be very difficult,” Milley told reporters on Wednesday. Milley added it would take several days before the US would know for certain the size of the debris field.
Moscow – which denies that its jets were in physical contact with the drone – said it would try to retrieve the drone wreckage as reports emerged on Thursday of US officials confirming that Russian ships had reached the crash site.
ABC News senior Pentagon reporter Luis Martinez tweeted that two US officials had confirmed the presence of Russian ships at the location of the crash in the Black Sea.
The Black Sea borders both Russia and Ukraine.
Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told the Rossiya-1 TV channel on Wednesday that Russia would attempt a recovery operation for the US spy drone.
“I don’t know whether we will be able to retrieve it or not but it has to be done. And we’ll certainly work on it. I hope, of course, successfully,” he said.
Milley said the US had taken measures to ensure there would be no loss of sensitive intelligence if the drone were to be salvaged by Russia.
“We’re quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” Milley said.
Patrushev also said the drone incident proved that the US was involved in the war in Ukraine. “This is another confirmation that they are directly involved in these actions, in the war,” he said.
Moscow’s ambassador to the US, Anatoly Antonov, said Washington deploying a drone thousands of kilometres from the US and near to Russia’s borders proved it was collecting intelligence for the Ukrainian army to help it carry out attacks on Russian forces.
Ukrainian officials cautioned on Wednesday that the drone’s downing signalled Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intention to “expand the conflict”.
“The purpose of this all-in tactic is to always be raising the stakes,” Ukraine’s Security and Defence Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said on social media.
But with US officials saying the Russian plane may have unintentionally collided with the drone and Moscow maintaining the jets did not interfere physically with the aircraft, it appeared both sides were focused on restraint and averting a military escalation at a time of already fraught relations over Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Milley, the US general, said it was clear the intercept and harassment of the drone by Russian jets was intentional but it was unclear whether the Russian aircraft deliberately made contact with the MQ-9 – a manoeuvre that could also put the Russian jet at risk.
“Was it intentional or not? Don’t know yet,” Milley said.
Earlier on Wednesday, US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said the incident was likely unintentional.
Milley also spoke with his Russian counterpart, Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov, in a rare phone call on Wednesday, the Pentagon said.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also spoke with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu, after the incident but did not reveal details of their conversation.
sure we do
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Not to mention it had an active transponder and was tracked by numerous entities many in the public domain.
Didn’t the Ukraine get invited by NATO to join as a member?
How does Russia feel about NATO on its doorstep?
Who caused the coup of the democratically elected, pro-Russian leader to be ousted in 2014?
Who shelled the ethnic Russians civilians in the Donetsk region in 2014 after they started protesting the coup?
Russia has used the Crimea for centuries; the Crimea is Russia's only warm water port! Crimea is one key to Russia being a world power.
JFK was considering going to war in 1962 to prevent Russia from establishing a nuclear weapons base in Cuba; he was able to work out a compromise to resolve the situation. Russia is prepared to take extreme measures to keep NATO off of its doorstep, to maintain its access to the Crimea.
A compromise was worked out but the U.S. intervened and stopped the deal. We appear to be considering nuclear war to stop Russia from having access to the Crimea.
We citizens must insist that sanity prevail in the Ukraine conflict (Sen. Lindsey Graham.) Our intervention has caused genocide in the region. As an experienced negotiator, I agree with Donald Trump that a peaceful resolution is still possible if cooler heads can prevail.
So do the Uniparty warmongers. Warcons, this is it your CNC is on the line and ready to give you your marching orders!
What will it be, conventional, guerilla warfare, tactical nukes, a combination of all three or do you all want the whole enchilada an exchange of ICBM’s. I know the thought of ICBM’s flying gets the warcons orgasmic and think of it, we can tell our starving, radioactive surviving kids and grandkids we did this all for the Ukraine as they go who and what the hell is the Ukraine?
Have we done that?
No, we haven’t.
Try again, Scooter.
L
Gee, all because we decided to push Russian into war in 2014, such thin skinned people. It’s like they think were financing the war are something, shheeesh!
>> The first report was it was damaged in flight and they put it down. Now it crashed and sank.
Some on FR don’t care for the term “gaslighting”. But gaslighting is a real thing, and once one understands the origin of the term, it is VERY descriptive of what our institutions are trying to do to us.
As I see it. Its a very warranted act of defense
Not sure why some FReepers cannot get their heads around the simple concept of international air space.
But whether the US was or was not in international waters is not really the point. The US is openly aiding the Ukraine with materials, weapons and intelligence. We are not just flying past. We have admitted all this. So the Russians are at war with us. They just need us to stay out. Our population will not support a war because a drone got injured. In fact I am not sure the US could raise an army to go to war at all. There are large costs when a government looses the trust of their people. And one of them is that men will not fight. Conservatives are the ones that normally join the army. But many see the American Generals as lying warmongers. I bet a draft would produce a lot of American expats.
Bizarre, since even the Russians are NOT making the claim the drone was not in international airspace.
there is little room in the Black Sea for international waters
Its "International airspace" not international waters. International airspace is 12 nautical miles which converts to 13.8 miles. So yes, there is a lot of international airspace off of Crimea.
But whether the US was or was not in international waters is not really the point... We are not just flying past.
So the truth is the US was in international airspace where the Russians were supposed to leave everybody alone.
In fact I am not sure the US could raise an army to go to war at all.
Ukraine does NOT want US soldiers, they want US weapons, like ATACMS that will allow them to win.
You see the pipelines and tell me our government has been straight with us. You see the pandemic and tell me our government has been straight with us. I have no idea what all is going on in Ukraine but they tried to bring down a sitting president because he asked about it. Our government has lost its moral authority. I don’t know what provoked the actions that lead to the downing of the drone. But I am not going to assume that our government was in the right. Putin and our government are moral equivalents. Neither should be trusted.
Ukraine does not only want US weapons, they want US money. They are now billionaires thanks to US weapons some of which have been sold and US money. The country is filled with Harry Limes.
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