After a few days of inactivity, this morning we recorded a new mission of a US Navy Northrop Grumman MQ-4C “Triton” (reg. 169659 – c/s BLACKCAT5) launched from NAS Sigonella.
The drone, after completing an orbit south of Cyprus, is heading towards the Eastern Mediterranean where it will carry out its mission.
It’s likely that the Triton is conducting a mission to monitor (among other things) the movements of Russian Navy units in the area (which has its operational base in Tartus, Syria).
Furthermore, it’s interesting to note the callsign used by the drone during this mission. No longer the usual “TRITON” but “BLACKCAT,” most likely a reference to the US Navy Catalina seaplane units that carried out nighttime anti-ship missions in the Pacific and were known as Black Cats.