Russian fighters collide with US drone, force it down

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A Russian fighter jet collided with the rear propeller of an unmanned U.S. military drone over the international waters of the Black Sea on Tuesday morning, forcing the U.S. to bring the drone down off the coast of Ukraine, U.S. officials said.

The incident, which involved two Russian jets, was denounced as "unsafe and unprofessional" by the U.S. State Department. A spokesman called it a "brazen violation of international law" that led to the summoning of Russia's ambassador for a diplomatic meeting in Washington.

Afterward, the ambassador, Anatoly Antonov, insisted that the Russian jets had not hit or fired on the drone.

The Russians claimed Tuesday that the drone was acting as an "intruder" and flying toward Russia's borders.

U.S. European Command, or EUCOM, labeled the incident as "dangerous" and said in a statement that it could "lead to miscalculation and unintended escalation."

A U.S. official was equally blunt -- telling ABC News that the Russian pilot who hit the drone, seemingly unintentionally, was acting "reckless and juvenile."

"At approximately 7:03 AM [local time], one of the Russian Su-27 aircraft struck the propeller of the MQ-9, causing U.S. forces to have to bring the MQ-9 down in international waters," EUCOM said in its statement.

EUCOM said the incident "demonstrates a lack of competence in addition to being unsafe and unprofessional."

"Several times before the collision, the Su-27s dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner," EUCOM added

The incident is apparently the latest in what EUCOM described as "a pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and Allied aircraft over international airspace, including over the Black Sea."

"Our MQ-9 aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace when it was intercepted and hit by a Russian aircraft, resulting in a crash and complete loss of the MQ-9," U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, commander of the U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa, said in a statement. "In fact, this unsafe and unprofessional act by the Russians nearly caused both aircraft to crash."

"U.S. and Allied aircraft will continue to operate in international airspace and we call on the Russians to conduct themselves professionally and safely," Hecker added.

The unarmed MQ-9 drone had taken off from Romania and was flying at an altitude of 25,000 feet in international airspace southwest of Crimea with its transponder on when it was intercepted by the two Russian fighter jets, which were Su-27s, a U.S. Air Force official told ABC News.

Over a span of at least 30 minutes, the two jets executed 19 close passes by the drone, spraying some of their jet fuel on the craft during the last three or four of those passes, the official said.

The collision occurred on the last pass as one of the Su-27s approached the drone at a high rate of speed from behind, according to the official: As the jet pulled up, it collided with the MQ-9's rear propeller.

One of the MQ-9's propeller blades was bent in the collision and though there was a momentary loss of contact, controllers were able to glide the drone into the Black Sea "a fair distance" from where the collision had occurred, the official said.

"There's no concern for sensitive information being obtained from the drone but the U.S. is looking at all options at this time as it considers next steps," said another U.S. official.

The first official described the collision as resulting from "the pure incompetence" of the Russian pilot whose actions were "flat-out dumb."

The official said that Russian fighters had sprayed their jet fuel at manned aircraft during previous encounters, but Tuesday's incident was the first time that an attempt had been made to spray an unmanned U.S. military drone.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder separately said Tuesday that the Russian aircraft were able to land after the collision though he did not provide details. He said that Russia had not recovered the drone.

White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Tuesday that "it is not uncommon" for Russian aircraft to intercept U.S. aircraft over the Black Sea but this is "the first time" such a run-in "resulted in the splashing of one of our drones."

Three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence said the highest levels of the Kremlin approved the aggressive actions of Russian military fighter jets against a U.S. military drone over the Black Sea on Tuesday.

The Russian jets dropped jet fuel on the MQ-9 Reaper, an unprecedented action, and two of the officials said the intelligence suggests the intent seemed to be to throw the drone off course or disable its surveillance capabilities.

It was “Russian leadership’s intention to be aggressive in the intercept,” said one of the officials.

Three defense officials and one Biden administration official also said the Russians have already reached the area where the MQ-9 Reaper crashed. The Russians are actively looking for the debris with ships and aircraft, but the U.S. hasn’t seen any indication that they’ve been able to recover any of it, officials said. One official said much of the debris sank into the Black Sea.

The U.S. is unlikely to try to recover the remnants of the crashed drone, according to the three U.S. officials familiar with the intelligence.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a news conference on Wednesday that there’s probably not a lot of debris to recover and noted the part of the Black Sea where the drone landed is as much as 5,000-feet deep.

He reiterated, as other U.S. officials have said, that the U.S. took steps to disable software on the drone so the Russians would not be able to glean any highly sensitive information from it if they were to recover pieces of it.