A military drone, taking off from a NATO airbase in Italy, conducted reconnaissance off the coasts of Crimea and Russia.
The US Air Force launched an RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle with the call code FORTE10 over the Black Sea. This is evidenced by the data of the Flightradar24 service, which monitors the movement of air transport.
Taking off from Sigonella airbase in Italy, the drone headed for the Black Sea after circling for a few hours in Romanian airspace. Staying close to the Turkish coast, he flew towards Russia and probably reconnaissance made several circles in front of the Russian city of Sochi. At the time of this writing, the RQ-4 Global Hawk was on its way to Romania.
RQ-4 Global Hawk is a reconnaissance aircraft manufactured by Northrop Grumman (USA) that can track day and night using optoelectronic, infrared, radar and electronic sensors. During the day, it can examine up to 100 thousand square meters of area. km, flies at speeds of up to 575 km / h, and the total time of the device without landing is 30 hours.
It is worth noting that several other American drones have been blown up over European countries. For example, the EP-3E Aries II (LK31) and Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint (JAKE11) flew over Romania, and the Boeing E-3 Sentry (NOVA61) flew over Poland.
On March 16, CNN reported, citing official sources, that the United States had sent another drone to the area where the Russian Federation shot down the MQ-9 Reaper. A drone of the same model is expected to inspect the crash site and watch the Russians trying to remove the wreckage of the plane. The US military is reviewing the routes of drones to minimize the risk of collision with Russian Armed Forces forces, which regularly raise their warplanes over the Black Sea. The Pentagon decided to evaluate the overall benefits and risks of such flights by comparing the potential value of the intelligence received with the probability of a conflict with the Russian Federation. At the same time, some military experts fear that restricting drone flights will reduce the amount of war-related intelligence in Ukraine.
On March 15, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin assured that the United States would continue to fly over the Black Sea even after the MQ-9 Reaper incident. He added that Russia should fly planes more safely.
Source: Focus
Ashley Fitzgerald is an accomplished journalist in the field of technology. She currently works as a writer at 24 news breaker. With a deep understanding of the latest technology developments, Ashley’s writing provides readers with insightful analysis and unique perspectives on the industry.