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> For it to be lost completely in an attempted intercept is highly unusual, he notes.

My major question is, did the drone self-destruct to prevent retrieval and reverse engineering?

Maybe, but in the past we've used fighters to shoot down Reapers after losing positive control over them (e.g., in Afghanistan), so it's not clear that they are very self destructible. Flying it straight down into the water would probably cause a large amount of disintegration.

MQ9s have also been lost many times before, including over Yemen and Libya, so it's not clear how sensitive the wreck still is.

Based on the Russian sources, yes, it did self-destruct.

I guess this was after the Russian aircraft dumped fuel on it and collided with the prop?

Who is a more trustworthy source? Unfortunately not a single word from the Russian official sources can be taken seriously.

I think that was their subtle joke.

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