Lithuania seized top secret aircraft ID system from crashed Russian fighter

Lithuanian authorities seized a top secret device that Russian pilots use to identify other aircraft from the wreckage of a Russian military jet that crashed three weeks ago, the lead investigator said Tuesday.

In a live TV interview broadcast late Tuesday, Gen. Vitalijus Vaiksnoras said the so-called friend-or-foe identification system was discovered after the Su-27 fighter bomber went down in the Lithuanian countryside on Sept. 15.

"We found key components of the plane on the very first day, including the friend-or-foe system, and we handed it over to the prosecutor," Vaiksnoras said. He did not say in what condition the device was.

If it is intact and decoded by NATO member Lithuania, Russia could be forced to replace the system in all its military aircraft at great cost, AP reported.