According to him, drone flights at a greater distance from the temporarily occupied Crimea reduce the quality of intelligence related to the war in Ukraine. He added that spy satellites can offset the problem to some extent, but their time over targets is shorter.
He noted that the United States will not continue to fly as close to the peninsula as before in order to avoid provocations, but “there is already a desire” to return to the old routes.
At the same time, Pentagon Speaker Pat Ryder refused to comment in any way on such information about the change in the quality of intelligence.
“We are not going to discuss missions, routes or timing of operations. We are also not going to discuss intelligence operations,” he said.