![]() ![]() ![]() But if it was configured in a nominal mode, with its standard EO/IR payload sensor and its Lynx radar, then there is no significant loss if the Russians recover it,” he adds. They might recover something they have not been exposed to before to exploit it for its technology. “If there were some sort of unique sensor onboard, that would be one thing. “What value Russia might get from recovery depends on what is being carried on the aircraft,” Deptula says. Depending on the mission, these can support additional sensors-or even bombs and missiles.īut “this MQ-9 was not armed it was only carrying sensors,” says David Deptula, a retired Air Force lieutenant general and former deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.Įven without weapons onboard, the MQ-9 might have at least initially carried technology that would reward Russian recovery efforts. In addition, the Reaper has other equipment-carrying structures called pylons. The drone also carries a small Lynx radar to detect movement and activity on the ground. Footage from the three types of cameras on these two sensors can be viewed as video streams. This includes a number of visual sensors, in particular an infrared (IR) sensor and an electro-optical (EO) sensor, which consists of a color sensor and a monochrome daylight TV camera. military has the capability to remotely disable or destroy some of the technology on the drone.Ī standard MQ-9 Reaper carries what is called a multispectral targeting system. “As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence., we did take mitigating measures, so we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value,” Milley said. This might imply that the U.S. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, suggested in a press conference on Wednesday that there would be little of interest left for the Russians to find. The next day Sergey Naryshkin, director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, declared that Moscow had the ability to recover the MQ-9’s remains. But U.S. Eventually one of the Russian aircraft came into contact with the four-blade propeller that powers the drone from behind, which snapped a propeller blade and caused the MQ-9 to crash into the water, according to the Pentagon. government-with remarkable speed-declassified video footage that had been captured by the Reaper that showed one of the jets spraying fuel as it raced toward the drone. Hecker said in a statement that the Russian aircraft carried out “unsafe and unprofessional” maneuvers-including dumping fuel on the $12 million uncrewed aircraft and flying closely in front of it. ![]() military, was likely reporting on Russian maritime activities related to the war in Ukraine when it encountered the Russian twin-engine Su-27 jets. The MQ-9, a multipurpose workhorse for the U.S. The jets brought down the drone in international waters, which has kicked off a race between Washington, D.C., and Moscow to recover the drone-a contest that could potentially extend to the depths of the Black Sea. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone flying high above the Black Sea. On Tuesday, two Russian fighter jets intercepted a U.S. ![]()
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