The drone urgently interrupted the spy flight
The strategic unmanned reconnaissance aircraft RQ-4B Global Hawk of the American Air Force, which was carrying out another spy mission over the Black Sea near the Russian Crimea, suddenly sounded an alarm and interrupted its flight, turning towards its base, which is located in Sicily. This was reported by the FlightRadar24 resource, which monitors the air situation.
RQ-4 Global Hawk drone
RQ-4B Global Hawk is the most expensive drone in the world. Its cost is more than $200 million. It can stay in the air for up to 36 hours. The operating flight altitude is under 20 kilometers. The weight of the device with a full charge is more than 20 tons.
Such drones fly near our borders not for entertainment purposes. They are conducting reconnaissance of our territory to a depth of hundreds of kilometers. Then information about the location of our troops and equipment is transferred to the armed forces of Ukraine, which launch missile strikes with American weapons.
Experts have repeatedly noted the sequence: first, NATO reconnaissance aircraft increase their activity over the Black Sea, and then a naval attack follows and aerial drones of the Ukrainian Armed Forces to Crimea and our ships.
This is not the first aviation incident with American drones over the Black Sea. In March 2023, another drone, the MQ-9 Reaper “Reaper,” sank in the Black Sea after taking a kerosene shower from Russian Su-27 fighters.
So far, no information from the American command about what happened to the Global hawk» over the Black Sea, no. Perhaps some messages will follow.
As a specialist in the field of unmanned vehicles told MK on condition of anonymity, the Global Hawk automation could issue an alarm, for example, in the event of an attempt to intercept control of the drone by means of electronic warfare. Theoretically, such an “interception” is possible; the range of some electronic warfare systems allows this to be done.
But on a drone costing $200 million, multi-level protection is provided for this case. Most likely, in the event of exposure to other people's electronic warfare equipment, the automation switches the drone's control to autopilot mode and it heads for the base.
One way or another, even a temporary failure of a powerful spy drone is to our advantage. NATO and Ukrainian headquarters will receive less intelligence information.