Drone incident between the US and Russia - Expert sees "great risk of escalation"

A Russian fighter jet collided with a US drone over the Black Sea.

Expert Gerhard Mangott rates the incident as "very risky".

Washington/Moscow - The crash of a US reconnaissance drone over the Black Sea has exacerbated tensions between the US and Russia - whose relations are already strained because of the Ukraine conflict.

Political scientist Prof. Dr.

Gerhard Mangott from the University of Innsbruck rated the collision as an incident with a "great risk of escalation".

"If something like this should happen a second or third time, the conflict between the USA and Russia could escalate," warns the security expert in an interview with

from IPPEN.MEDIA.

What exactly happened?

On Tuesday (March 14) a US drone and a Russian fighter jet collided over the Black Sea.

Both sides react sharply: The USA accused the Russian pilots of attacking and crashing the US drone in a "dangerous and unprofessional" manner.

Russia, in turn, spoke of a provocation: the US drone was used near the Russian border to collect data for Ukraine.

US drone near Russia's border: "Militarily and politically very risky"

Political scientist Mangott does not rate the incident as a direct US provocation against Russia, but considers it militarily and politically “very risky” for the US to fly drone reconnaissance flights near Russia to provide military aid to Ukraine.

"Such drones transmit their data in real time to Ukraine, which can then use them to attack Russian positions," Mangott explained.

"Politically, this is the intention, since the USA has decided not only to support Ukraine with arms deliveries, but also with reconnaissance flights.

But militarily it is risky.”

Tanks, drones, anti-aircraft defenses: weapons for Ukraine

Tanks, drones, anti-aircraft defenses: weapons for Ukraine

Expert on the collision between drone and fighter jet: "Theoretically it can happen every day"

In the current case on Tuesday, the Russians probably did not succeed in intercepting the drone, which is why there was direct contact.

"It can be expected that there will now be efforts on both sides not to let this escalate, because nobody is interested in that," believes Mangott.

“But for the future one has to say that such incidents can theoretically happen every day.

And if it happens more times, there could be an escalation.” According to the expert, not a direct military escalation between the US and Russia, but a “significant worsening of the crisis between the two countries”.

There was also an incident in the Baltic region on Wednesday (March 15): British and German fighter jets intercepted two Russian planes in a joint NATO mission near Estonia.

Mangott sees this as a provocation by Russia to test the West's reaction.