The US military on Friday sent another spy drone over the Black Sea, away from the restricted airspace in which an MQ-9 drone crashed earlier this week after being intercepted by Russian jets.
Flight tracking websites demonstrated A drone marked Forte10, identified as an RQ-4 Global Hawk, circles over Romanian airspace before flying south and east. The drone circled over the eastern Black Sea, but never came closer than 100 kilometers to Crimea.
The Black Sea part of the mission lasted only two hours instead of the usual twelve hours, one of the pro-Ukrainian observers noted on Twitter. by calling it “Definitely the weirdest route I’ve ever seen an RQ-4 take.”
Unnamed US officials later confirmed the mission to Reuters, saying it was the first such flight since Tuesday’s incident. However, the Pentagon said earlier that another drone had been dispatched to monitor possible rescue operations by the Russian navy.
On Tuesday morning, two Russian planes intercepted the American MQ-9 Reaper, which was in restricted airspace without a transmitter, reports the Russian Defense Ministry. Moscow said the drone lost lift due to erratic maneuvers and fell into the water. The incident took place about 60 kilometers southwest of Sevastopol.
The European Command of the US Armed Forces blamed the Russian pilots “unsafe and unprofessional” while flying, eventually posting a video showing planes repeatedly refueling the drone. According to the US, the drone was destroyed after a Russian plane hit its propeller. The Russian military said that none of the planes made contact with the drone.
After the incident, the Pentagon’s top military and civilian leadership contacted their Russian counterparts for the first time in months, while the State Department summoned Moscow’s representative in Washington.
Ambassador Anatoly Antonov later said he conveyed to his hosts the position that American drones had no business flying so close to Russia. Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu announced that both pilots will receive a reward for their actions.
The US military said on Thursday that it did “Weighing the Costs and Benefits” of further drone operations and “Looking closely” on their routes to reduce the risk of further incidents.
Washington has admitted to providing intelligence, intelligence and reconnaissance information to Ukraine in the conflict against Russia, while insisting it is not a party to military action. US and NATO spy planes regularly fly over the Black Sea and approach Crimea, sometimes just before Ukrainian forces launch an offensive on the Russian peninsula.
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