Difficult to recover downed drone in Black Sea, says top US general

Washington: A US surveillance drone brought down over the Black Sea after a Russian military intercept probably broke apart and would be difficult to recover given the depth of the water in the area, the top US general said on Wednesday.

In the first direct US-Russian incident since the Ukraine war began, a Russian Su-27 jet struck the propeller of the unmanned MQ-9 drone, making it inoperable, the Pentagon said, worsening already tense relations between Washington and Moscow.

Russia’s defense ministry blamed “sharp maneuvering” by the drone for the crash and said its jet did not make contact.

“It probably sank to some significant depths, so any recovery operation from a technical standpoint would be very difficult,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley told reporters.

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He cautioned that it would take several days before the United States would know for certain the size of the debris field in waters as deep as 4,000 to 5,000 feet (1,219 to 1,524 meters), Milley said.

Russia said on Wednesday it would try to retrieve the remains of the drone but appeared to acknowledge the challenges.

“I don’t know whether we will be able to retrieve it or not, but that it has to be done. And we’ll certainly work on it. I hope, of course, successfully,” Kremlin Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev told the Rossiya-1 TV channel.

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Milley said the United States had already taken measures to guard against a loss of sensitive intelligence if the drone were to be recovered by Russia.

“We’re quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” Milley said.

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