A new US Navy MQ-4C Triton arriving at Sigonella (with a peculiarity)

In these very minutes, we are tracking the flight of a US Navy Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton (callsign VVPE602) transferring from NAS Jacksonville, Florida, to its final destination at NAS Sigonella, in Sicily.

The replacement after the crash This new deployment became promptly necessary to replace the airframe lost last April 9th over the Persian Gulf. The new arrival will allow the US Navy to maintain its long-range intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities in the operational theater unaltered.

The tracking code anomaly However, there is a very interesting technical peculiarity that emerged during our monitoring: on the main flight tracking websites, the new drone is transmitting the same hexcode and, consequently, appears with the same registration (reg. 169804) as the airframe destroyed a few days ago. A transmission anomaly or a formal “recycling” of the code that represents a decidedly unusual detail.

The fleet at Sigonella Aside from this curiosity related to the ADS-B codes, the new Triton will restore the numbers of the Sicilian detachment. The aircraft will, in fact, join the other MQ-4C already present and operating from the Sigonella base, identified by the registration 169661.