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The Pentagon announced this week that it intends to continue patrolling international territory despite Moscow putting the U.S. on notice after an incident last week in which an American MQ-9 Reaper drone was intercepted and then subsequently crashed into the Black Sea. The Kremlin has announced that it has closed some of the airspace over the Black Sea as part of a ‘special operation’ taking place in Ukraine.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov issued a new warning indicating that Moscow will take “countermeasures” against any U.S. or NATO drone flights over the area of the Black Sea where the previous drone interception incident occurred.
Ryabkov cautioned, “We warn them against trying to play on their nerves, testing our patience.” According to Ryabkov, the U.S. drone “was in a zone where we introduced a special regime associated with conducting military exercises.”
He went on to reiterate that Russia would protect its security and sovereignty “by all means available” and that “no American drones, whether reconnaissance, strike, strategic, or any other kind,” will “shake their determination.”
While U.S. drone flights have remained in international airspace, the Pentagon has shifted the flight paths further away from Crimea after last Tuesday’s drone collision with a Russian jet over concerns that another such incident could lead to a direct conflict with Russia. According to one U.S. official, the drone flight paths were altered “to avoid being too provocative” with Moscow.
The official did note that while the drone paths will remain further away from the Crimean Peninsula “for the time being,” there is already “an appetite” to move the flight paths closer to Crimea.
Russian forces are reportedly working to recover the U.S. drone that crashed into deep waters in the Black Sea last week.
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While the U.S. and Europe have joined forces in an effort to target putting sanctions on Iranian-made drones that are being shipped to Russia, Iran and Russia have agreed to establish a joint drone manufacturing facility in Russia, according to a weekend report from Wall Street Journal.
Iran has been supplying Russia with its kamikaze drones, including the Shahed-136, which Moscow has been using to launch persistent strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure. The drones cost $20,000 to produce, and Iran and Russia now have plans to construct a manufacturing site for the drones inside Russian territory. The new facility would allow Russia to produce an additional 6,000 drones for use in its war against Ukraine.
The deal to build a facility in Russia was reportedly agreed to with Iran in November at the height of Russia’s consistent drone attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure.
Concerns are growing, however, that the new manufacturing site could result in new UAVs. A delegation of high-level Iranian officials visited Russia in January to work out the necessary details to get the site running. Russia and Iran plan to use the new facility to design and build a faster drone that would pose new threats to Ukraine and challenge its air defenses.
The Russian facility is also seen as an attempt to avoid what the Biden administration referred to as its plans to “choke off Iran’s ability to manufacture the drones” as U.S. forces assist “Ukrian’s military to target the sites where the drones are being prepared for launch,” according to statements from U.S. officials.
It is an uphill battle for Ukraine as the air defense systems used to intercept and destroy Iran’s kamikaze drones cost far more than the drones themselves. Now, with Iran moving production of the drones to neighboring Russia and increasing production numbers, protecting its cities and infrastructure will become an even bigger challenge for Kyiv.
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