Now to some important breaking news.
Brand new information
just in to CNN about that
American drone
forced out of the sky
by a Russian fighter
jet over the Black Sea.
Let's get straight to CNN's Oren
Liebermann at the Pentagon.
Or and what do we know?
John, we now have a far better
sense of the steps the U.S.
took to make sure
there was no sensitive information
on that drone
that the Russians might be able
to try to recover from the Black Sea.
Yesterday, John Kirby,
the strategic coordinator
for the National Security Council, said
the U.S.
had taken steps to protect its equities
but wouldn't go into further detail.
We now know from two U.S.
officials familiar with the incident.
That step
that was taken was erasing
or wiping the software from the drone.
The sensitive software that runs
the drone end is in charge.
Of collecting the intelligence,
collecting the signals
that the drone uses
and then passes on to the U.S.
upon its landing
remotely, the operators of the drone
were able to wipe the drone in a race
that's software
such that it wouldn't fall
into Russian hands
or frankly, other hands after the U.S.
brought it down in the Black Sea.
A senior Russian
official said on
Russian state TV
that the Russians would try to recover
the drone.
It's not the aircraft itself,
the hardware, if you will.
That's the sensitive part.
It is the software,
and that's the step the U.S.
went to protect by erasing it
and wiping it remotely from the drone
before it crashed into the Black Sea.
The U.S.
doesn't have naval assets
or ships in the Black Sea
that would be able
to expeditiously carry out
a recovery effort.
So this, John, is now we know the step
the U.S.
took to make sure
sensitive information, intelligence
didn't fall into the wrong hands
or labored life
for the Pentagon at the breaking news.
Thank you.
Let's get some insights now from retired
Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.
Colonel, grateful to see you today.
Let me just pop up
some video of this drone as it plays out.
Is this standard operating procedure?
You have an asset like this in the sky,
it comes under attack
or some interference in the like
is the operators,
everyone trying to get it to safety,
but no to prepared
to delete any sensitive information,
if you can. Yes, absolutely.
And one of the lessons
we learned from a 2001 incident
with the Chinese when a manned P-3
surveillance platform
was actually downed by the Chinese.
We didn't zero as the equipment
then we didn't take care of the software.
This was a lesson learned from that.
And the way they did
this was basically textbook.
Now we zero eyes these types of things.
We erase the software
and we make it unusable.
Russia has drones as well.
I mean, how
have are
we that far more advanced from them
that this would be proprietary
and urgent to keep out of their hands?
It would still be urgent
to keep out of their hands.
They do have drones that are somewhat
compatible too, with the MQ nine,
but they're not as sophisticated
as what the MQ nine has.
And so I just want to bring up the map,
Admiral Kirby,
who you know now at the White House,
says we may not be able to recover it.
They're going to try
may not be recovered here
as it happened
somewhere over the Black Sea.
We do not have exact location
correct as to where it happened.
You see the Russian border here.
Walk me through the challenge of trying
trying to get some military asset
to recover the drone
before the Russians find it.
So this drone
was probably somewhere about here
where we're at
you know, crashed into the sea.
So what this shows, of course, is
this is Russian
occupied territory,
Russian naval activity
all throughout this area.
Very hard for us to get there.
Any of our allies,
the Romanians don't have the capability.
The Turkey Turks
don't have the capability,
nor do the Bulgarians.
It would be almost impossible
if you don't have naval assets in there
right now to get the drone.
The Russian ambassador
to the United States
was summoned to the State Department.
He says, you know,
Russia doesn't like any U.S.
aircraft near its borders.
That's why he said
this is the Russian border over here.
This is stolen property.
Sorry, but that's stolen property.
That is part of Ukraine that Russia stole
way back in the Obama administration.
Is it likely
would it have been flying over here
close to Russia?
Would the United States
have reconnaissance?
It's international water, by the way.
So it could be there, right?
Legally, yes.
Legally, absolutely.
And we've done that before.
We were going across this whole area.
But our area of interest right now
is this because,
number one, the war in Ukraine.
Number two,
the green transcripts from Odessa that
we need to make sure
that Ukraine
gets to continue to do those.
And that's one of the reasons
we're watching all of this.
Just very quickly, before I let you go,
we're focusing on the breaking news.
They deleted the software,
but the fact that a fighter jet
would approach
essentially an unarmed
or very lightly armed drone,
what does that tell you about Russia's
mood at the moment?
Russia is very combative, John.
And what they want to do
is they have this very serious.