While Ukraine’s airspace is largely empty amid the crisis with Russia, a remotely operated US military vehicle called the RQ-4 Global Hawk circles over the country for hours at a time.
Over the past month, two spy planes have traveled on routine missions from the Mediterranean Sea to Ukraine, where they have repeatedly navigated north and east in loops, according to Flightradar24.
The drone’s high-altitude, long-range flights coincide with a flurry of diplomacy among the leaders of the United States, Europe and Russia to avert a military build-up and war by Russia on the Ukraine border.
At times, the two aircraft – under call signs Forte10, Forte11 and Forte12 – have been the only active aircraft publicly visible in eastern Ukraine. Aviation watchers have taken note, speculating that the United States is making its presence felt in a display of force.
“With these types of flights, dropping the transponder is a conscious decision,” said Flightradar24 communications director Ian Petchenic.
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The US Air Force declined to comment on the details of the flights, but said the United States regularly operates aircraft in support of intelligence purposes.
“These missions demonstrate our continued commitment to safety and security in the region,” a spokesman said.
On Monday evening, Forte11 returned to the Mediterranean Sea after a nearly 24-hour voyage over Ukraine. Its transponder stopped at low altitude near Sigonella Naval Air Station in Sicily. This was the 13th such mission.
Now 2 x Northrop Grumman RQ-4 UAVs are airborne at the same time.
fort 11 https://t.co/aq7t2gPFKN
UAVGH000 https://t.co/CZWS53wEwf pic.twitter.com/3uWdn7bir7
— flightradar24 (@flightradar24) February 20, 2022
According to the Air Force website, the mission of such aircraft is to “collect intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance to support combined combat forces in peacetime, contingency and wartime operations around the world”.
Their creator, Northrop Grumman, says the aircraft “see potential hazards” and “gather near-real-time, high-resolution imagery of large areas of land in all types of weather, day or night.”
The flight path stands out because international commercial aviation, out of an abundance of caution, largely avoided Ukraine’s airspace, particularly along the Russian border to the east.
On 15 February, Flightradar24 stated that the Forte11 was its most-tracked flight, and then later reported that it had been airborne for more than 21 hours.
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An aircraft with a wingspan of about 40 m and a length of 15 m, can typically fly over 30 hours.
In 2014, the craft traveled 34.3 hours without refueling, setting a record for the US Air Force, according to its website.
Northrop Grumman has been providing aircraft to the USAF for over 20 years. In August, it won a five-year contract for NATO to maintain the craft.