A race is on between the US and Russia to recover the debris of the drone that crashed in the Black Sea.
Russian officials announced on Wednesday that operations were underway to retrieve the debris from the downed US drone — the country has denied responsibility for the incident.
Military commanders said on Tuesday that a Russian fighter jet dumped fuel on a US drone over the Black Sea. The fighter jet is believed to have clipped the drone’s propeller while traveling in international airspace and caused the crash.
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An MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) flies by during a training mission at Creech Air Force Base on Nov. 17, 2015 in Indian Springs, Nevada. (Isaac Breken/Getty Images)
John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told CNN on Wednesday that the U.S. military has already taken steps to “protect our stocks” and that they don’t want anyone else to “get their hands on (the drone).”
“Without going into too much detail, I can say that we have taken steps to protect our stock with respect to that particular drone, that particular aircraft and its property in the United States,” Kirby said. “Of course we don’t want anyone outside of us to get their hands on it.”
Russia has denied that the planes hit each other and accuses the US of unnecessarily escalating the matter.
“We assume that the United States will refrain from further media speculation and stop flights near the Russian border,” Russian ambassador Anatoly Antonov said on Wednesday.
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National Security Council spokesman John Kirby speaks at a news conference at the White House on Thursday, March 2, 2023 in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci))
He claimed the drone crashed after performing “sharp maneuvers,” Reuters reports.
The details of the incident have been disputed on multiple counts, creating two separate stories leading up to the crash.
Russian officials have claimed that the drone’s transponder over the Black Sea was not turned on.
A former drone pilot told Fox News that U.S. drones always have their transponders on except during combat. In addition, an MQ-9 Reaper drone is not a stealth aircraft and would show up on Russian radar, the pilot said.
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Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksiy Danilov attends a press conference in Kyiv on November 7, 2022. (SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images)
Two US military fighter pilots spoke to Fox News disputing the idea that Russian jets could have dumped fuel on the drone.
The pilots said any fuel the jet fighter pilots planned to dump would “immediately vaporize” when it hit the air. It would not have affected the drone or the flight.
Ukrainian officials have claimed the alleged incident is an attempt by Russia to escalate US involvement in the war.
“The US MQ-9 Reaper UAV incident – provoked by Russia over the Black Sea – is Putin’s way of signaling his willingness to expand the conflict to involve other parties,” the National Security Secretary said. – and Defense Council, Oleksiy Danilov. “The goal of this all-in tactic is to always raise the stakes.”
Timothy Nerozzi is a writer for Fox News Digital. You can follow him on Twitter @timothynerozzi and email him at [email protected]
