Global Hawk Flew over Ukraine with Transponder On

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According to reports, a US Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, took off from the Sigonella air base in Sicily, Italy on Saturday, flying toward Crimea from the west at a height of 15,500 meters. After that, the drone entered Ukrainian airspace along the water in Mykolayiv region, and continued its flight east of Kherson to Melitopol, carrying out reconnaissance north of the Crimean peninsula.

The drone’s 300 km field of view would have easily allowed it to observe eastern Ukrainian territory, including areas of Donbass, where Ukrainian and independence-supporting militia are holding a fragile peace. The aircraft approached 15 km north of the city of Melitopol, 217 km to the west of the demarcation line between Ukrainian troops and Donbass militia.  On its way back to base, the drone flew over the regions of Kirovohrad and Vinnytsia, and then through Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

The Global Hawk (04-2021) popped up on the radars at 50,000 feet, east of Odessa, flying towards Mariupol. Then, the remotely piloted aircraft turned northwest bound before heading towards Sigonella where it arrived after overflying Moldova and Bulgaria. At a certain point the UAS was cruising at 54,000 feet.

The flight path the aircraft followed probably enabled its imagery intelligence (IMINT) sensors to take a look at Russian bases in Crimea as well as gather information about the pro-Russia forces on the ground in the Dombass region of Ukraine.

Strategically based in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, U.S. RQ-4s are regularly tasked with surveillance missions over North Africa, East Europe and Middle East. However, they usually keep a low-profile avoiding to be detected at least by commercial ADS-B receivers like those feeding online flight tracking systems such as Flightradar24.com,PlaneFinder.net or Global ADS Exchange. At least this is what has happened until Oct. 15 when a U.S. Air Force Global Hawk could be tracked online because of its Mode-S transponder while flying over southern Ukraine.

Since January 2015, US drones have carried out regular airborne reconnaissance in areas around Russia in the Black Sea.  Asked to comment about the drone’s likely mission, veteran military analyst Konstantin Sivkov told the independent online newspaper Svobodnaya Pressa that it’s sufficient to consider the RQ-4 Global Hawk’s advanced capabilities, which include photographic and electronic reconnaissance.

“If the drone was really flying along this route, the photographic reconnaissance component drops out, and electronic reconnaissance, meant to find the location, operating conditions and emission characteristics of radar air defense systems is highly likely to have taken place,” the analyst explained.

“The drone’s working transponder, which allowed specialized sites to capture the route of its flight, seems to have been meant to highlight that the drone was carrying out its monitoring mission legally – in the framework of agreements with Ukraine, and without violating Russian airspace.”

transponder

For his part, military historian Alexander Shirokorad recalled that US P-8A Poseidon ASW patrol aircraft, also stationed at Sigonella, have made regular flights near Crimea, as well as Russian bases in Syria, in recent weeks and months. “In September, their flights were associated with the Kavkaz-2016 strategic command staff exercises. The US military was looking to ascertain the workings of our forces command and control, and the intelligence and radio engineering capabilities possessed by the Russian Navy.

” As far as reconnaissance in the Donbass is concerned, Shirokorad stressed that in accordance with the Minsk peace agreements, the flight of any aircraft in an area 30 km along the demarcation line from either direction is prohibited. “Therefore, the US would not risk flying close” to the area. There are several reasons for this. “First, the drone’s radio reconnaissance capabilities allow it to explore beyond the 217 km” distance that it flew from the front line. “Second, the international legal situation as far as drones are concerned has not been fully resolved, and if something suddenly happens, proving the offender would be virtually impossible. Obviously, it’s difficult to handle these heavy-class devices, controlled via highly encrypted satellite communications, and almost impossible to intercept. It would be easier to break the link with the satellite,” which would activate the system’s inertial navigation system, thus forcing it to return to base.

The expert suggested that it’s entirely possible that the Global Hawk’s flight may have been connected to the testing of new equipment. The drone’s developer, Northrop Grumman, has recently been engaged in testing of an RQ-4 with an optical high resolution camera of the kind normally fitted on U-2 aircraft, along with testing of the Syers-2 multispectral electro-optical camera. It’s possible, Shirokorad noted, that the US military may have decided to test these new tools in real world conditions in an important region.

Sources: Sputnik, The Aviationist

 

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