The United States has summoned Russia’s ambassador to protest the crash of an unmanned American drone after a Russian warplane collided with it over the Black Sea, the State Department said on March 14.
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“We are engaging directly with the Russians, again at senior levels, to convey our strong objections to this unsafe, unprofessional intercept, which caused the downing of the unmanned U.S. aircraft,” spokesman Ned Price told reporters.
The Russian ambassador in Washington has been convened at the State Department and the American ambassador in Moscow has registered a “strong objection,” Price said.
The incident marked a clear violation of international law, Price added.
A Pentagon spokesman, Brigadier General Patrick Ryder, said earlier that the U.S. military had to crash the drone into the Black Sea because of damage it sustained when it was intercepted.
Ryder said he was not aware of any radio communications between Russian and U.S. officials at the time of the incident.
The U.S. military said in a statement that one of two Russian fighter jets that flew near the drone struck a propeller of the aircraft in violation of international law. U.S. officials say the drone was flying over international airspace at the time of the incident.
Russia denied causing the drone to crash into the Black Sea. The Defense Ministry said its fighter jets didn’t use weapons or impact the U.S. drone.
The ministry said the drone, identified by the Pentagon as an MQ-9 Reaper, was flying near the Russian border and had intruded into an area declared off limits by Russian authorities. It said the Russian military scrambled fighters to intercept the drone, which the ministry claimed crashed into the water after a sharp maneuver.
The MQ-9 was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, U.S. Air Force General James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe and Air Forces Africa, said in a statement.
The collision resulted in the complete loss of the MQ-9, Hecker said. Ryder said the wreckage of the drone has not yet been recovered.
Hecker said the incident involved two Russian Su-27 aircraft that conducted an “unsafe and unprofessional intercept” with the MQ-9, a U.S. Air Force drone used in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
Prior to the collision, the Su-27 several times dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 “in a reckless, environmentally unsound, and unprofessional manner,” he said, adding that the incident “demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional.”
NATO diplomats in Brussels confirmed that the incident took place but said they did not expect it to immediately escalate into a further confrontation.
The incident follows a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea, the U.S. statement said.
U.S. forces routinely fly aircraft throughout Europe over sovereign territory and throughout international airspace in coordination with host nations and international laws, the statement said.
White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the drone posed no threat and stressed that it was operating in international airspace.
Russian intercepts of non-Russian planes and drones are “not uncommon,” Kirby said on a call with reporters.
He said while it was not the first intercept of its kind, it was the first that had resulted in a U.S. drone going down in the Black Sea.
“We have been flying over that airspace consistently now for a year and we are going to continue to do that,” Kirby added.
