KALININGRAD – The US Air Force unmanned aerial vehicle has completed the reconnaissance mission near Russia’s western border, reports the monitoring site.
A US Air Force RQ-4B-40 Global Hawk drone carried out a reconnaissance mission near Russia’s western border, monitoring portal PlaneRadar said .
The unmanned aerial vehicle with the registration number 112048 took off from the naval base of Sigonella, located on the Italian island of Sicily. At 5:45 am, the aircraft was spotted near the border with the Kaliningrad region. At 7:45 am, the reconnaissance flight entered into Estonia’s airspace along the border of the Pskov and Leningrad regions.
11:45 мск.
Стратегический разведывательный #БпЛА #Northrop #Grumman RQ-4B-40 #Global #Hawk, ВВС США??, бортовой номер 11-2048, позывной #FORTE10, взлетевший с авиабазы #Sigonella??, выполняет разведывательный полёт вдоль границы Калининградской?? области.#UAV #RQ4 #USAF pic.twitter.com/tF2F5Dp44l— PlaneRadar (@ua4wiy_) May 15, 2019
The strategic reconnaissance drone Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk-40 of the US Air Force, with the registration 11-2048, indicative FORTE10, which took off from the airbase at Sigonella, is conducting a reconnaissance flight along the border region of Kaliningrad.
Lately reconnaissance aircraft and foreign UAVs have increased their activity along Russia’s borders. Last week, an American drone RQ-4B-40 Global Hawk was sighted near the Crimean coast.
Ever since relations between the US and Russia took a downward turn in 2014, American and NATO surveillance aircraft have been regularly spotted flying close to either Russia’s borders or Russian military bases in Syria.
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Last week several aviation enthusiasts have reported on Twitter that a US Air Force RQ-4B-40 Global Hawk reconnaissance drone was first spotted flying near the demarcation line in Donbass in Ukraine, then along the coast of the Crimean Peninsula on 7 May. The drone, with the call sign Forte 10, was launched from the Sigonella air base in Sicily, the Twitterians said.
??United States Air Force
Teledyne RQ-4B-40 Global Hawk
11-2048 FORTE10#UAV #RQ4B #GlobalHawk #USAF#Crimea pic.twitter.com/SQTs6HLoM5— 360°Radar (@wipljw) May 7, 2019
#USAF RQ-4B-40 Global Hawk
(FORTE10) now tracking off #Russia black sea coast pic.twitter.com/2PDyvxJbQX— Intel Sky & Air (@air_intel) May 1, 2019
The US has not commented on the operational tasks of the drone, but this was not the first time that an American drone has taken off from Sigonella to conduct surveillance flights either near Russia’s border or close to the Syrian coast, where two Russian military bases are located. Such flights have become commonplace following the downward spiral in bilateral relations between the US and Russia that began in 2014.
The US and its NATO allies have also been conducting similar flights along the western and north-western borders of Russia, despite the latter’s repeated calls for a cessation of such activities.