This morning, a Russian Su-27 fighter jet collided with a US MQ-9 Reaper surveillance drone over the Black Sea. The aircraft struck the drone’s propellors, and US forces brought the Reaper down in international waters.

US general James Hecker said the drone was conducting ‘routine operations’ when two Russian jets ‘dumped fuel on and flew in front of the MQ-9 in a reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional manner’.