US surveillance drone operating over the Black Sea

• The US military is evaluating drone operations over the Black Sea.
• In response to a collision between a Russian fighter plane and a US spy drone.
• That caused the drone to crash.

A US surveillance drone is flying above the Black Sea, according to information from the flight tracking website FlightRadar24.

From a height of 52,000 feet, the RQ-4 Global Hawk is visible flying over the southern Black Sea. According to its flight path, it originated in Romania and crossed international airspace over the Black Sea from west to east.

FlightRadar24 data indicate that the drone was spotted flying west of the Russian coastal city of Sochi and southeast of Crimea in international airspace.

Asked at a news conference Thursday when the US would fly drone missions again, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said, “I’m not going to get into talking about specific missions, routes, timelines of operations.

I think Secretary [Lloyd] Austin was pretty clear that we’re going to continue to fly and operate in international airspace where international law allows, and that includes the Black Sea region.”

Background information A spy drone with a range of surveillance and intelligence gathering capabilities, the RQ-4 Global Hawk is capable of high-altitude, long-endurance missions.

It is considerably bigger than the MQ-9 Reaper that crashed on Tuesday, with a wingspan of 130 feet and a maximum takeoff weight of 32,000 pounds.

In response to a collision between a Russian fighter plane and a US spy drone that prompted the drone to crash, reputed media outlet reported on Thursday that the US was evaluating drone operations over the Black Sea.

According to authorities, the US military was “taking a hard look” at the drone’s flight paths and determining how to best de-escalate the situation with the Russians, who have been routinely flying their fighter jets into and out of Crimea.

According to a senior US military official, the Pentagon has instructed European Command to defend future surveillance missions in the region, which will include risk assessment.

Notwithstanding the evaluation, the US military had not totally stopped the drone missions.

Shortly after the accident, the military sent the same type of drone, a MQ-9 Reaper, on a mission in roughly the same region over the Black Sea in an effort to investigate the crash scene and keep an eye on Russians looking for the debris.

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