Russia intends to pick up the wreckage of a downed American MQ-9 Reaper drone from the Black Sea. The aggressor country, obviously, seeks to study them, including secret technologies. However, they won't be able to do this.

CNN correspondent Natasha Bertrand, citing two anonymous sources, reported bad news for the Russians. American experts have prepared an unpleasant surprise.

The Russians will not receive secret data

Natasha Bertrand reported that before the drone crashed, American experts remotely deleted the confidential software of the MQ-9 Reaper drone. Such a move would rule out the possibility of the Russians intercepting secret US technologies.

The US remotely erased sensitive software on an MQ-9 Reaper drone before it crashed into the Black Sea to stop Russia from gathering classified information, two US officials told me. Bertrand said.

Probably, this is precisely why Russia announced its intention to pick up the wreckage of the drone from the Black Sea. Secretary of the Russian Security Council Patrushev announced such actions on March 15, and the head of the foreign intelligence service Naryshkin convinces that Russia has every opportunity for this.

The Pentagon confirmed this information

Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin, at a briefing following the 10th meeting in the Ramstein format, confirmed that the confidential software of the MQ-9 Reaper drone was deleted before falling into the Black Sea.

At the same time, Austin said that the US has not yet made a decision on whether to pick up drone debris from the Black Sea.

The Russians shot down an American drone

• Around 07:00 on March 14, a Russian Su-27 crashed into an MQ-9 drone. Therefore, US forces sank the MQ-9 in international waters. This was the first direct confrontation between the United States and Russia during a full-scale war in Ukraine.
• Russia comes up with versions that the drone allegedly fell by itself or that it threatened Russia, although this is not true.
• On March 15, against the background of the incident, the head of the Pentagon, Lloyd Austin, called Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and assured him that American aircraft would fly where it was permitted by international law. A conversation is also expected between the Head of the US Joint Staff Committee, General Mark Milley, and the head of the Russian General Staff, Gerasimov.
• US State Department spokesman Ned Price said the US considers the damage to the drone “unintentional.”