Why is the US flying killer drones in the Black Sea?
The United States is over 6,000 miles away from the Black Sea. Moscow is less than 1,000.
Russian officials said they intend to recover the debris of a US MQ-9 Reaper drone downed in the Black Sea on Tuesday after being intercepted by Russian jets.
US officials insist the drone was on a routine “surveillance” flight, but as reported by The New York Times:
“The Russian Ministry of Defense denied that its warplanes were to blame and offered an alternative account of the confrontation. It said in a statement that after the Russian air force scrambled fighter jets to identify the drone, the U.S. aircraft maneuvered sharply, lost altitude and hit the water. The drone had been flying near the Crimean Peninsula and headed toward the Russian border with its identifying transponder off, contrary to the instructions Russia has issued for the airspace over its military operations in Ukraine”
For me, this explanation leads to one question:
No reports on this incident in the US mainstream newsmedia mentioned that the drone had turned it's transponder off. The Chinese weather baloon was in international airspace.