US drone hit by Russian pilot 'sank to an unrecoverable depth'

[mystery-ak]

US drone hit by Russian pilot 'sank to an unrecoverable depth'
by Mike Brest, Defense Reporter |
March 22, 2023 10:48 AM

The U.S. military is not actively trying to recover the Air Force's MQ-9 unmanned aircraft that was downed into the Black Sea after being hit by a Russian aircraft last week.

Two Russian pilots flew recklessly and dangerously close to the U.S. drone over the Black Sea, dumping fuel on it multiple times, before one of them ultimately flew into the drone's propeller last Tuesday, U.S. military officials explained in its aftermath. The U.S. military was forced to crash land the drone into the Black Sea, about 75 miles southwest of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, but they were able to wipe it of sensitive data.

"There are not any ongoing recovery efforts as the MQ-9 sank to an unrecoverable depth in the Black Sea," a U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa spokesperson told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday. "However, we took mitigating measures to secure and wipe all sensitive data from the aircraft prior to the crash to prevent anyone from obtaining any intelligence of value if they were to recover the plane."

Russian officials have said they want to recover the $32 million aircraft, and a U.S. official told CNN they've been able to discover small bits of the MQ-9 Reaper drone.

more
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/defense-national-security/us-drone-hit-by-russian-pilot-unrecoverable

[Fishrrman]

Hmmmm....

Is the unspoken message here (to the Russians), "we don't want it back, it's yours"....?

[Smokin Joe]

Seems like a 'suicide' switch would be good, and I don't mean just a data wipe. If the drone had a warhead that could be armed during such encounters that would explode when other aircraft were in effective range, this might be the next to last such encounter.

[corbe]

   That is exactly what I would expect the US Government to say, regardless of the facts in the water. 
   Tucker will do an explosive expose' next week explaining nothing of significance.

[Smokin Joe]

   That is exactly what I would expect the US Government to say, regardless of the facts in the water. 
   Tucker will do an explosive expose' next week explaining nothing of significance.

Sad, isn't it, that there was no proximity warhead which could have been made 'hot' and the loss of the Russian fighter credited to the collision...