How Russia will get the secrets of the American drone, by Nikolai Gulyaev for VZGLYAD. 03.15.2023.
Russia has devices capable of lifting an American MQ-9 drone from the bottom of the sea.
The United States is concerned that its military may "never get hold" of an MQ-9 drone that crashed off the coast of Crimea. Why is the strongest American army in the world completely powerless in this case, what secrets can this UAV carry, and what difficulties will Russian specialists have to face?
“We have done everything to minimize the value of the downed MQ-9 from an intelligence point of view,” said White House spokesman John Kirby. “However, we are not sure that we will ever be able to raise this apparatus [from the bottom of the sea].”
Thus, the political leadership of the United States made it clear that they took extremely seriously the danger of the drone falling into “the wrong hands” - for example, the hands of the Russian military. And their fears were immediately confirmed by Russian officials.
“Russia will try to get the remains of an American drone that fell into the Black Sea,” said Nikolai Patrushev, head of the Russian Security Council. Moreover, there is reason to believe that the operation itself to raise the device (or its fragments) began on March 14, immediately after the incident with the MQ-9. Recordings of conversations between Russian sailors participating in the search for the apparatus appeared on a number of Telegram channels.
MQ-9 fell in close proximity to the Crimean coast, but the exact coordinates have not yet been publicly announced. Is it possible to assume that the United States is capable of undertaking some kind of special operation to lift it? With a high probability - no, and this, in fact, is what the confession of the representative of the White House says.
Firstly, for an underwater operation of this magnitude, special ships are needed, equipped with the appropriate equipment. Of course, they are at the disposal of the United States - only these are warships, and in accordance with the Montreux Convention, passage through the Bosphorus (to the Black Sea) during hostilities is prohibited. This means that American warships will not get there either.
Secondly, with a high probability, Russia will be able to organize such searches much earlier than the United States. “There are technical possibilities for this,” says Nikolai Patrushev.
“I can assume that the crashed American drone is located at a depth of about a kilometer. Russia really has deep-sea submersibles at its disposal that can lift it - not entirely, of course, but the wreckage can be found with a high probability, - Captain of the third rank of the reserve Maxim Klimov tells the VZGLYAD newspaper. “For example, the company Yuzhmorgeologia, which is known for lifting the black box of a crashed Tu-154 over the Black Sea, is able to do this.”
However, in Russia there are at least a few companies that have autonomous (uninhabited) vehicles capable of operating at the depths of the Black Sea. That is, at least up to three thousand metres.
State structures also have such devices, for example, the Ministry of Emergency Situations, not to mention the Russian Navy and the famous GUGI (Main Directorate for Deep Sea Research). The head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Russia, Sergei Naryshkin, also announced the technical feasibility of raising the apparatus.
Specialists in deep-sea research, with whom the VZGLYAD newspaper spoke, note that from a purely technical point of view, the main difficulty will not be to raise the apparatus (or its fragments), but to find it. Even if the exact location of the drone crash is known, most likely the point on the seabed where the MQ-9 is now located is somewhere off to the side. For searches and research, it will be necessary to take into account sea currents, as well as to attract specialized equipment - special underwater vehicles equipped with sonar.
It remains to answer the question - why raise this drone at all? Is the game worth the candle, because the operation to lift the apparatus can be very expensive? What secrets and secrets can it contain? What could Russian special services and engineers find in it?
According to the Pentagon, the MQ-9 was not armed, which means that it was performing a purely reconnaissance mission. But weapons systems in this case are not as critical as communication and information systems.
First of all, such a modern UAV contains numerous electronic systems and components, both built-in and replaceable. In particular, we are talking about communication systems, optical and electronic sensors, radars, transmitters and other similar devices.
Of course, after being in sea water, all of them will not be in working order, but even in this form they may be of interest to Russian intelligence.
Especially a lot of information can be gleaned by studying the control system of the device, its layout, architecture, engineering solutions, and even the materials used for the fuselage and planes.
And here it is worth returning to where exactly the wreckage of the fallen drone is located. The question is fundamental - if they are in Russian territorial waters, then the problem is only technical. In fact, these fragments become the property of the Russian state.
However, if the device is in international waters, everything changes. The drone would then remain the property of the United States, and an open attempt to retrieve it would cause an international scandal. Here we can recall the top-secret operation code-named "Azorian" to raise the Soviet nuclear submarine, carried out by the United States in 1974. The operation was kept in deep secrecy precisely because of the restrictions on working with someone else's (in this case, Soviet) property located on the ocean floor.
Statements by Russian officials about the possibility and desirability of raising the MQ-9 are highly likely a sign that the drone is located precisely in Russian terrorist waters, under full control, including the Russian Navy. So, most likely, the specialists of the Russian military-industrial complex really have every chance to learn the secrets of the American drone, and on a completely legal basis.
https://vz.ru/society/2023/3/15/1203280.html