US Resumes Black Sea High-Altitude Drone Surveillance After 11-Month Absence

Data from the Stockholm-based aviation tracking service Flightradar24 reported on Saturday, May 17, that a US RQ-4B Global Hawk strategic reconnaissance drone had made a new flight in the Black Sea area.

The data showed that the unmanned aircraft, call sign Forte10, flew from NATO’s Sigonella naval air base in Sicily and conducted reconnaissance near the Romanian coast at an altitude of about 15,500 meters (51,000 feet) around 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Crimea.

The Global Hawk

Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4B Global Hawk is the world’s largest production unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). It has a wingspan of almost 40 meters (130 feet) and can remain airborne for over 30 hours.

It is equipped with high-tech surveillance equipment, which includes synthetic aperture radars, electro-optical and infrared sensors and is capable of collecting real-time information on air defense activities, military aircraft and ship movements and can survey an area of 100,000 square kilometers (40,000 square miles) – an area the size of Iceland – each day.

Other Topics of Interest

Turkish Fishing Vessel Sunk After Apparent Black Sea Attack, One Dead

A Turkish-flagged fishing vessel, the Duru 67, was attacked and sunk in the northern Black Sea on Friday, June 5. The Turkish Coast Guard confirmed that the vessel came under fire west of Russian-occupied Sevastopol, resulting in the death of one crew member and wounding four others. Surviving mariners were rescued from the sinking trawler by another fishing vessel, which was subsequently met by a coast guard cutter equipped with a medical team.

Why the reappearance?

This is the first report of a Global Hawk Black Sea mission since June last year.

Military analysts commented that this could be a signal of a change in the US view towards Russia’s intransigence as the flight took place immediately following the Turkish-mediated May 16 Russian Ukrainian talks in Istanbul, which were considered by all to have been a failure.

The first bilateral face-to-face meeting between Moscow and Kyiv in over three years lasted less than two hours and ended with the only agreement – to exchange 1,000 prisoners of war from each side.

Russia’s threat to continue the war indefinitely unless Ukraine ceded Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, recognized Crimea’s annexation, adopted neutrality, and banned foreign military bases proved too much for Kyiv’s delegation to accept.

The Financial Times reported that as a result, Steven Witkoff, the US presidential special envoy for Russia, has cancelled his forthcoming visit to Russia.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer has restated calls to increase sanctions pressure on Moscow and expand military aid to Ukraine.

Also on Saturday, following the failed peace talks, Russia launched the largest Shahed kamikaze drone attack on Ukraine using a reported 273 drones on multiple regions, including the central Kyiv region and the eastern regions of Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, which resulted in several civilian casualties and extensive destruction, according to Ukraine’s Air Force.