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Updated March 17th, 2023 at 07:19 IST

Russia has good odds of retrieving US drone, gaining access to tech & info: Russian expert

Russia may retrieve the US MQ-9 Reaper drone from the Black Sea, despite reports from Washington that the Pentagon has already erased critical info from drone.

Reported by: Megha Rawat
Russia
Image: Twitter/@US_EUCOM | Image:self
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Despite claims from Washington that the Pentagon has already deleted all critical information from the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, sources claim that Moscow may still be able to recover it from the Black Sea.

"The Russian experts apparently arrived at the crash site today, or are on their way there, based on the movement of our ship this morning. They are operating a search vessel, which is a subset of research vessels. Given that we are only 60 kilometres away from the crash site, it is likely that our specialists will arrive there first," according to Dmitry Kornev, a military expert and founder of the Military Russia portal.

Earlier, John Kirby -- US National Security Council spokesperson told an American broadcaster, "The US does not want the UAV to fall into anyone's hands other than ours, after the US MQ-9 Reaper crashed into the Black Sea after engaging in a sharp manoeuvre on March 14."

While the Military informed the US media that it was able to remotely delete sensitive software from the Reaper, the Biden administration also indicated that it had previously taken steps to retrieve the drone's remains.

Military expert Kornev said, "In the sense that all secret information has been destroyed there, some codes, etc., now all this can really be deleted remotely. The issue is that they are probably not sure that this operation was really successfully completed, removing all these codes and other secret information. It could fail, maybe due to technical failures, since the drone was already falling, perhaps there were already problems with the power supply on board the device. Theoretically, there could be something left."

The US media refers to The Reaper as the US Air Force's primary offensive strike drone. The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in question is a multifunctional platform with a variety of features. The drone's operation near the Crimean coast may perhaps be clarified through the investigation of its remains. What weaponry the aircraft carried as it approached the Russian border is also being questioned.

Earl Rasmussen -- a retired lieutenant colonel with over 20 years in the US Army and an international consultant said, "There's a lot of information that could be learned from the reverse engineering as far as the construction, aerodynamics, communications equipment that may be inside, Russians may be able to determine some of the encryption technology." 

"From what I've heard of this, there's like a black box in it as well. So there may be information that could be obtained from that. Even though a lot of information may have been erased, you might be able to reconstruct that as well," he added. 

According to Rasmussen, "Russia could share some of the information with other parties, like the Iranians or the Chinese, who would be very interested in learning additional information. And those are some of the issues the US is probably concerned about."

How the US can get to drone's wreckage

According to the Russian military expert, it would be a little more difficult for Washington to reach the crash site and retrieve its device.

Kornev said, "At the moment, there is an easy option and a complicated one. An easy option: the US may charter some kind of civilian ship, say, in Romania or Bulgaria. They could send specialists, bring the same underwater drones and sail out to carry out a particular mission. A slightly more complicated option: an American civilian ship could pass through the Bosphorus, with all the specialists, with the appropriate equipment and perform all the work that is needed."

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Published March 17th, 2023 at 07:19 IST

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