According to a recent story, Russia may have acquired some crucial intelligence after recovering the debris of a US drone that was shot down by a Russian plane from the Black Sea’s depths.
A significant diplomatic problem occurred last month as a result of the destruction of the advanced US MQ-9 Reaper on March 14 when it was flying over occupied Crimea in international airspace.
The drone’s “onboard electronic equipment” has allegedly been retrieved, and Russia claims to have “obtained invaluable information about the characteristics of a number of critical MQ-9 Reaper radio-electronic components.”
The wreckage was estimated to have sunk to depths of up to 2,950ft before it was recovered by a Russian deep-sea salvage team.
Included in the salvage was an AN/AAS-52 multispectral optronic turret system, an AN/APY-8 surface reconnaissance radar system, a Link-16 data exchange system and secure telemetry and satellite communication stations, says a report by Svobodnaya Pressa.
The drone debris was reportedly examined by specialist Russian laboratories including at the Central Research Institute of the Airborne Forces of the Russian Ministry of Defence.
Russia believes it can develop electronic warfare jamming technology to thwart the MQ-9 Reaper reconnaissance drones as it passes data to satellites, says the report.
It accuses the US of passing intelligence from the drone to the Ukrainian armed forces.
Russian naval vessels were known to have mounted an operation in the Black Sea to recover the downed drone.
Russia last month honoured two Su-27 pilots it said were involved in the downing of the Reaper.
The pair Sergey Popov and Vasily Vavilov, both air force majors, were handed state awards by Vladimir Putin’s defence minister Sergei Shoigu who had announced soon after the incident that the men would be honoured.
The unarmed US MQ-9 Reaper had its tail propeller struck by the Russian warplane which had earlier discharged fuel on the unmanned flyer.
The West viewed the interception as illegal, while Russia portrayed the pilots as heroes.
America branded the incident – a ‘brazen violation of international law’, blaming the Russians for ‘an unsafe and unprofessional intercept’.
The pilots were awarded Orders of Courage.
Pilot Major Vasily Vavilov said: ‘We were on combat air defence duty when we received an order to take off.
‘Two crews flew to intercept a drone which was flying with the purpose of violating the [Russian] state border.
‘We flew close to the drone, identified it, and then performed manoeuvres to force it not to carry out its duty.’
Russia said the incident was in an area in which it had closed the air space.
Officially Moscow said the incident was a ‘provocation’.
Russian Ambassador to the US Anatoly Antonov said the drone ‘was flying with its transponders off, and it entered the zone of the special military operation’.
The Russian defence ministry said: ‘As a result of sharp manoeuvring, the MQ-9 drone went into an unguided flight with loss of altitude and collided with the water surface.’