Washington said that a Russian Su-27 fighter had dumped fuel on its $32 million ($51m) MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone, then hit it, and forced it to crash into the Black Sea.
Russia’s defence ministry denies that its fighter came into contact with the drone and has said that it crashed due to “sharp manoeuvring”.
A Russian attempt to recover the drone could inflame the delicate situation.
“It has not been recovered, and I’m not sure that we’re going to be able to recover it,” said the US national security department spokesman John Kirby. “Where it fell into the Black Sea - [that’s] very, very deep water. So we’re still assessing whether there can be any kind of recovery effort. There may not be.”
If the Russians were to recover the craft, United States authorities have taken precautions to ensure that their ability to draw useful intelligence from it will be limited, Kirby told ABC, without expanding on what measures they had taken.
”That said, it’s our property,” Kirby added, saying the US authorities will continue to explore recovery options.
The MQ-9 Reaper drone is 65 feet wide, can fly at 300 miles per hour, has a range of 1,200 miles and can carry missiles. There are fears that if the technology falls into Russian hands, it would be shared with other US adversaries, including Iran and possibly North Korea.
British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has urged Moscow to respect international airspace.
”The key here is that all parties respect international airspace, and we urge the Russians to do so,” Wallace told Reuters at the DSEI Japan defence show in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo.
”The Americans have said they think it is unprofessional,” he added.
