(DEFENCE SECURITY ASIA) — A High-Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) “RQ-4B Global Hawk” drone belonging to the United States military allegedly “disappeared” while conducting operations in Black Sea airspace close to Crimea Peninsula currently occupied by the Russian military, as claimed by a Russian news agency.
The Russian news agency’s RIA Novosti report is based on information and data from the “Flight Radar” flight tracking app until June 4.
According to information, the High Altitude drone with flight number 10-2045 and call sign FORTE12 took off from the NATO air base Sigonella in Italy.
The RQ-4B Global Hawk drone was then detected flying in Bulgarian airspace towards the Black Sea to carry out surveillance and reconnaissance activities on the Crimean Peninsula a territory belonging to Ukraine but captured by the Russian army, before it went “missing”.
However, so far, neither the news agency concerned nor Flight Radar have updated the latest report on the fate of the sophisticated drone.
The Russian Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defence has also not issued any statements regarding the alleged loss of the U.S. RQ-4B Global Hawk drone.
On May 26th, a RQ-4B Global Hawk drone was detected in the Black Sea near the tourist town of Sochi.
According to its trajectory, the unmanned aircraft had departed from the NATO air base at Sigonella on the island of Sicily and was detected shortly thereafter near Krasnodar Krai and the Crimean Peninsula.
In May last year, a Russian Su-27 fighter aircraft allegedly “broke” the U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone fan, causing the highly-prized asset to crash into the Black Sea.
Washington also alleged that the Russian fighter aircraft dropped oil onto the U.S. drone in order to “blind its eyesight (sensors)”, but was denied by the Russian Ministry.
When the U.S. drone crashed, it was believed to be carrying out Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaisance (ISR) missions in the Black Sea near Crimea.
The Russian Defence Ministry denied that its fighter aircraft had a “contact” with the U.S. drone and claimed that it crashed into the Black Sea as a result of its “sharp manoeuvres” during the flight.
It also said the two fighters did not use any weapons they carried on the US drone.
The high operational endurance of the Global Hawk drone, enabling it to fly uninterruptedly for 34 hours as claimed by the U.S. military, which began using the HALE drone in 2005.
Defence observers say that the drone’s endurance is between 34-42 hours and is capable of operating from an altitude of 65,000 feet and an operating radius of 14,000 nautical miles.
The asset used by the U.S. military to collect sensitive intelligence information in real-time was developed by Northrop Grumman in collaboration with the United States Air Force.
It is equipped with Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar, electro-optic suite by RTX (formerly known as Raytheon), communication system by L3 and electronic support measures. — DSA