The Pentagon released declassified footage Thursday that it says shows a Russian jet conducting "an unsafe and unprofessional intercept" with a U.S. drone over the Black Sea earlier this week.
Driving the news: The 42-second video shows a Russian Su-27 jet approaching the MQ-9 Reaper drone and releasing fuel as it neared the U.S. aircraft on Tuesday.
A jet is then seen approaching the drone for the second time and colliding with it before the feed cuts out.
The footage appears to show damage to the drone's propeller.
The big picture: The collision led to the "complete loss" of the drone, the U.S. European Command said
The incident followed a "pattern of dangerous actions by Russian pilots while interacting with U.S. and Allied aircraft over international airspace," it added.
But Joint Chiefs Chairman Mark Milley noted at a press conference that the remains had likely broken apart and sunk, adding that had been taken measures to prevent the loss of sensitive intelligence.
"There's probably not much to recover, frankly," he added.
