Analyst: Expect 'firm' U.S. response to drone crash

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STORY: "It certainly sounds like a Russian pilot was horsing around and deliberately trying to destroy what they're saying was a US MQ 9 drone over the Black Sea," said Tom Karako, senior fellow with the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. "And so this is, this is a provocation. It's probably something of a test."

The Pentagon said that one of the Russian Su-27 jets struck the propeller of the drone, making it inoperable, while Russia's defence ministry blamed "sharp manoeuvring" of the unmanned drone for the crash and said that its jets did not make contact.

"I think number 1 is going to be the the firmness and the clarity with which the United States responds," Karako said. "Identifying that we don't want our own weakness or indecision here to be perceived by the Russians as an encouragement to try something else."

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