New NATO “Phoenix” in Sigonella

This morning we’ve tracked a new arrival in Sigonella AB: a Northrop Grumman RQ-4D (callsign “MAGMA”) for NATO is landing in the sicilian airbase after a long ferry flight across the Atlantic (20 hrs) directly from the USA (probably from Edwards AFB).

In these minutes (12:50 CEST) the drone is descending from its original flight level (58k ft) to land in Sigonella.

As we’ve already seen in the past the ICAO code of the drone is Italian (33FD69) but it’s only a temporary code use for the transatlantic flight, the aircraft will be operated by NATO.

Once all five aircraft arrive in Italy in the course of 2020, NATO’s collectively owned and operated Alliance Ground Surveillance system will provide a unique state-of-the-art capability procured by 15 Allies and shared with all 29 Alliance members.