The incident over the Black Sea involved an American MQ-9 unmanned aircraft that was intercepted by Russian fighter jets. Reports indicate the drone was not carrying weapons at the time of the encounter, which has been described by several outlets as a routine reconnaissance operation rather than a combat mission. The New York Times cited statements from Pentagon officials to support this depiction of events [New York Times; attribution: Pentagon].
According to sources, the Reaper drone, capable of carrying Hellfire missiles, was unarmed during the flight and was conducting surveillance at a distance of roughly 75 miles southwest of Crimea, translating to about 120 kilometers. The account highlights that no armaments or live munitions were aboard the aircraft at the moment of interception [New York Times; attribution: Pentagon; socialbites.ca].
Pentagon representatives indicated that the MQ-9 had taken off from an air base in Romania as part of a prolonged scouting mission. In typical operations, exploration or reconnaissance flights of this kind can extend for several hours, with an estimated duration reaching up to ten hours depending on mission parameters and airspace constraints [Pentagon; attribution: official briefing].
Former Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antontov clarified that Russian forces did not fire weapons at the unmanned aircraft during its Black Sea reconnaissance flight, and there were no direct aerial confrontations that resulted in damage or an in-flight incident [Antontov; attribution: official statements].
Earlier, Pentagon spokesperson Patrick Ryder provided remarks at a briefing noting that the American MQ-9, which has since been associated with a later crash in the Black Sea, was reportedly engaged in a reconnaissance mission at the time. The context suggests a routine surveillance operation rather than a strike scenario [Pentagon; attribution: briefing].
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that no airborne munitions were deployed and that the encounter did not involve contact with the drone, attributing the situation to swift maneuvers by both sides and to the inherent risks of operating in contested airspace over the Black Sea [Russian Ministry of Defense; attribution: official release].