WATCH: Military releases footage showing Russian fighter jet forcing down US drone over Black Sea

Mike Brest

March 16, 06:35 AM March 16, 06:35 AM

The U.S. military has released footage that depicts a portion of the Tuesday encounter between two Russian fighter jet pilots and the U.S. drone they forced down.

The newly declassified video, which U.S. European Command released early Thursday, depicts critical moments in the mid-air incident that resulted in the downing of a U.S. Air Force MQ-9 unmanned aircraft.

RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT COLLIDES WITH UNMANNED US DRONE OVER THE BLACK SEA

The video is from a camera on the MQ-9 Reaper drone pointed backward toward its tail and the drone’s propeller, which is actively turning at the beginning of the clip. A Russian Su-27 approached the rear of the drone and began to release fuel as it passed the unmanned drone. The feed is briefly disrupted as the Russian fighter jet passed over the drone while continuing to release fuel. When it comes back seconds later, the propeller was visible and appeared undamaged.

A Russian jet came back for another approach, once again releasing fuel as it got closer to the drone. This time, however, as the Russian jet got close, the video feed cut out for 60 seconds, EUCOM said, which occurred following impact. Once the camera resumed its video feed, the propeller appears damaged.

The military was then forced to essentially crash land the drone into the Black Sea, but not before they were able to wipe it of sensitive data, should it fall into the wrong hands, though they are hoping to recover it themselves.

"It probably broke up, probably not a lot to recover, frankly," Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at a Wednesday briefing. "As far as the loss of anything of sensitive intelligence, etc., as normal we would take, and we did take, mitigating measures. So we are quite confident that whatever was of value is no longer of value."

He also said it’ll take days for them to figure out whether the military will be able to recover it because the debris “probably sank to some significant depths," while Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev said Russia will try to get the wreckage of the drone themselves.

This type of behavior from Russian pilots is becoming more common, though this is the first time a Russian pilot has crashed into a U.S. drone. Noting as much, Milley said it's clear the Russian pilot intentionally intercepted the U.S. drone, but it remains unclear if the pilot intended to strike it.

"This hazardous episode is part of a pattern of aggressive, risky, risky and unsafe actions by Russian pilots in international airspace," U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during a Wednesday press conference.

Austin and Milley had conversations on Wednesday with their Russian counterparts, though neither office provided details of their respective conversations. The U.S. also summoned Russian Ambassador Anatoly Antonov, though he rebuked the allegation, while U.S. Ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy conveyed a similar message to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

South Korea scrambles its jets after planes from Russia and China enter air defense zone

Asher Notheis

November 30, 10:50 AM November 30, 10:50 AM

South Korea scrambled its fighter jets on Wednesday after several warplanes from both China and Russia entered its air defense zone.

A pair of Chinese H-6 bombers entered the air defense zone at approximately 5:50 a.m. local time and proceeded to repeatedly leave and reenter the zone, according to Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff. The two planes left around 7 a.m. only to return around 12:20 p.m. with six Russian warplanes, which included four TU-95 bombers and two SU-35 fighter jets, and then left the area after 18 minutes, according to WHD News.

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"Our military dispatched air force fighter jets ahead of the Chinese and Russian aircraft's entry of the KADIZ to implement tactical measures in preparation for a potential contingency," the JCS said in a statement.

In response to the foreign planes entering the air zone, South Korea deployed an indeterminate number of aircraft, including F-15K jets, according to officials. The entry of the Chinese and Russian aircraft did not violate South Korea's airspace, the JCS said.

An air defense zone is defined as an area where countries ask foreign aircraft to identify themselves. Air defense zones differ from the airspace of a country, which is the air above a country's territory and territorial waters. Additionally, there are no international rules governing air defense zones, unlike airspaces.

Moscow does not recognize Korea's air defense zone, and Beijing claims that the zone is not territorial airspace. Both China and Russia previously said their warplanes were conducting regular joint exercises, according to Reuters.