For Russia, seizing the wreckage of the machine would notably make it possible to understand the type of information that the Americans are able to obtain.
After the crash Tuesday, March 14 of an American Reaper observation drone in the Black Sea, in the south of Ukraine, a race is launched to recover the device. And Russia, accused by the United States of being responsible for the fall of the drone – which it denies – has a head start.
On Telegram, the Russian online channel Rybar indicated on Wednesday March 15 in the morning that parts of the Reaper could already have been recovered by the Russian navy. According to Rybar, the place where the drone crashed is close enough to the Crimean coast, about sixty kilometers southwest of Sevastopol, to have been able to mount a recovery operation as early as Tuesday, March 14.
>> Fall of an American drone: this accident is not the first over the Black Sea
Research up to 1,500 meters deep
If this information is correct, it is likely that the parts of the craft recovered were on the surface: perhaps wing elements, such as wings or flaperons, which often float on the surface for a long time following the crash of a device at sea. As for recovering all of the wreckage of the Reaper and its guidance, piloting and above all observation and espionage instruments, which would be a godsend for the Russian intelligence services, it will undoubtedly be much harder and much longer depending on where exactly the Reaper fell.
In this area of the Black Sea, if the depths do not exceed 200 meters over a few tens of kilometers south-west of Sevastopol, they then plunge suddenly to more than 1,500 meters. Going to recover a wreck at that depth is a completely different story.
For the Russians, the interest in recovering the drone is obvious. It is indeed a device that operates in the field of military intelligence, operational espionage. It identifies in real time and over time, unlike satellites for example, a whole collection of signals: radio signals, radar emissions… It can also collect very precise infrared or optical images of Crimea, but also Russian military positions, their movements. Intelligence, probably at least partly transmitted to the Ukrainian army, and which will be essential to the latter if it intends to mount a military operation to retake Crimea.
Washington reluctant to supply Reapers to Ukraine
Recovering the Reaper for the Russians would therefore be a way of knowing exactly what information the Americans can obtain about them, and perhaps how this information is transmitted and encrypted. Although on these devices, the censors are usually equipped with self-destruct systems, in case they fall into enemy hands.
The Ukrainians have also been asking the Americans to provide them with Reaper drones since March 2022. But as the site revealed in December Politico (in English), Washington and in particular the Pentagon are reluctant. The American staff fearing that one of these machines would end up falling into the hands of the Russians.