17/3/2023–|Last updated: 3/17/202308:55 AM (Makkah)
US officials said that Washington is looking for alternatives to its drones in the airspace of the Black Sea after the interception incident carried out by the Russian Air Force, while Washington spoke of indications that the Russians moved to recover the wreckage of the American drone that fell as a result of the interception.
And CNN quoted officials at the US Department of Defense (Pentagon) as saying that the ministry is evaluating the paths of American drones in the airspace of the Black Sea, and is studying alternative ways to avoid Russian fighters in the Crimea peninsula and avoid escalation with Russia.
US officials stated that the Pentagon is considering relying on satellites to gather information in the Black Sea as an alternative to drones.
Washington accused Moscow of carrying out a “reckless” interception operation in international airspace by two Russian Su-27 fighters, which led to the downing of the American MQ-9 over the Black Sea last Tuesday.
However, Moscow attributed the fall of the American march to its dangerous maneuvers during the interception operation near Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, and accused Washington of carrying out “provocative” sorties in the region.
US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu made a phone call seeking to contain the incident, at a time when Washington and Moscow confirmed that they did not want confrontation.
Continue to use routers
Meanwhile, US National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby said Thursday that Washington will continue to use drones in the Black Sea to ensure US interests and enable Ukraine to defend itself.
Kirby’s statement came after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu described the flight of these drones as provocative, and threatened to respond to them.
On Thursday, the Russian ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, warned that the US military’s targeting of any Russian aircraft would be tantamount to a “declaration of war” on “the largest nuclear power,” referring to Russia.
Yesterday, the US Department of Defense published a video clip of what it said was an unsafe interception operation carried out by a Russian fighter of the US military march in international airspace, and US officials said that the decision to intercept it was issued by the highest levels in the Kremlin.
Retrieving the wreckage of the march
The Kremlin has said that Russian forces will extract the American drone from the bottom of the Black Sea if it deems it necessary to ensure security.
For his part, US Defense Department spokesman Pat Ryder said that his country has indications that Russia is trying to recover the drone, which fell in the waters of the Black Sea.
Ryder ruled out that Moscow would be able to recover anything useful from the march.
Before that, the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, said that the downing of the American drone by the Russian fighter was deliberate.
Milley added that extracting the remnants of the march from the Black Sea will be difficult, and that these remnants are found at a depth that may reach more than 1,500 meters under the water.
