Since Russia invaded Crimea in 2014 there have been numerous USAF Global Hawk and Reaper drone missions over the Black Sea to monitor the situation.
These missions have increased alongside those of NATO drones since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Today is an illustrative day:
- a USAF Northrop Grumman RQ-4B (reg. 11-2046 – callsign FORTE12) taken off from NAS Sigonella is carrying out a surveillance mission south of Crimea
- a NATO Northrop Grumman RQ-4D (reg. MM-AV-SA0016 – callsign MAGMA10), also taken off from Sigonella, is carrying out a similar mission over eastern Poland (in the picture you can see the last position transmitted, about 8 hours ago).
Both drones have been in the air for more than 15 hours