WASHINGTON: The United States has resumed surveillance drone flights above the Black Sea region adhering to a Russian fighter jet intercept on Tuesday that led to the downing of a US surveillance drone, two US officers stated on Friday (Mar 17).
An RQ-4 International Hawk flew a mission to the region on Friday, the officials reported, with one particular introducing that it was the very first these types of drone flight because the Tuesday incident. Pentagon officers have consistently stressed this week the incident would not halt Washington from traveling these kinds of missions.
However, the downing of a US MQ-9 drone on Tuesday was the initial direct US-Russian incident considering the fact that the Ukraine war began, worsening presently tense relations involving Washington and Moscow as both equally nations around the world publicly traded blame.
Russia has denied US accusations that its two Su-24 fighter jets acted recklessly about the unmanned US aircraft, and instead has blamed “sharp maneuvering” by the drone for the crash.
Even so, the Pentagon produced a movie on Thursday demonstrating a Russian Su-27 fighter jet coming incredibly near to the drone and dumping gas close to it, in what US officers stated was an obvious hard work to hurt the American plane as it flew.
It also showed the decline of the online video feed just after another shut Russian maneuver, which the Pentagon explained resulted from a Russian jet colliding with the drone.
The video finishes with pictures of the drone’s ruined propeller, which the Pentagon claimed was brought about by the collision, earning the aircraft inoperable and foremost it to crash into deep waters.
The incident above global waters was a reminder of the danger of immediate confrontation concerning the United States and Russia around Ukraine, which Moscow invaded extra than a yr in the past and which Western allies have supported with intelligence and weapons.