On March 14, the Russians shot down an American reconnaissance drone MQ-9 Reaper over the Black Sea. Thus, Vladimir Putin is trying to signal that Russia is capable of something.

This opinion was voiced by the military-political observer of the “Information resistance” group Alexander Kovalenko to Channel 24 . According to him, the reason is that as of today, the invaders do not have any large-scale victories on the battlefield.

What Putin wanted to demonstrate by shooting down the MQ-9 Reaper

The invaders only suffer defeat. Even the small advances they can make cost them huge losses. And it's hard to brag about it.

The Russians are looking for other ways to demonstrate some kind of victory. They catalyze the socio-political chaos in Moldova and Georgia, they are trying to aggravate the situation in Nagorno-Karabakh, but they do not have a global result in order to give it to their consumers of “informational fast food,” the military-political observer explained.

Therefore, Russia took such a risk as shooting down the American MQ-9 Reaper UAV in order to demonstrate supposedly still capable of something. However, this is more reminiscent of the convulsions of the Russian military-political regime .

What will the US response be?

Kovalenko noted that Russia's downing of an American drone would not have any military or diplomatic consequences for it. Thus, the aggressor country used the classic hybrid format for destroying UAVs from the times of the USSR.

The Soviet Union used similar provocations in neutral waters or airspace. The main sign is that the Russians did not use weapons for provocations, but resorted to such incidents.

Kovalenko on the downing of an American drone by Russia over the Black Sea: watch the video

There are many examples that Russia can use, but the United States knows how to respond to them. For example, the United States can provide Ukraine with weapons that have not been announced before and Russia does not expect this.

“This could be an unexpected and very unpleasant response for the Russians ,” the military-political observer suggested.

Will Russia be able to copy the American MQ-9 Reaper

In Russia, they said they were going to get the wreckage of a downed American drone from the Black Sea. However, according to Kovalenko, it is not known whether the aggressor country has the appropriate technical and technological capabilities. After all, this requires a special operation.

Even if the Russians are able to implement this, it is microcircuits, chips, other elements and electronic equipment that they must study and copy. Do they have such an opportunity if the production of their electronic base lags behind the Western one by 2-3 generations? In fact, no, – the military-political observer noted.

According to him, today, in order to assemble the Orlan-10 drone, the Russians use civilian elements of Western origin, not their own production. Therefore, even if the invaders receive some elements of the American MQ-9 Reaper drone, they will not be able to copy it technologically , except perhaps its appearance.

Russia shot down an American drone: what is known

• On March 14, over the Black Sea, a Russian Su-27 fighter crashed into the propeller of an American MQ-9 Reaper drone, causing the UAV to fall into the water.
• Russia intends to pick up the wreckage of a downed American MQ-9 Reaper drone from the Black Sea. However, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley noted that the drone most likely went deep under the water. So it will be very difficult for someone to lift it from a depth of 1.2 – 1.5 kilometers.
• At the same time, CNN correspondent Natasha Bertrand, citing two anonymous sources, said that before the drone crashed, American specialists removed confidential software remotely. Such a move would rule out the possibility of the Russians intercepting secret US technologies.