Reports indicate that the high-altitude drone, marked with flight number 10-2045 and call sign FORTE12, took off from NATO’s Sigonella Air Base in Italy. It navigated through Bulgarian airspace, heading towards the Black Sea to perform reconnaissance in the Crimean Peninsula’s special operation area.
However, as of now, neither RIA Novosti nor Flightradar have provided additional details about what transpired. The Russian Ministry of Defense has also refrained from commenting on the incident.
RQ-4B Global Hawk in May
Earlier, on May 26, an RQ-4B Global Hawk was detected in the Black Sea near Sochi. As per its trajectory, the UAV had taken off from NATO’s Sigonella naval base located on the island of Sicily. By 3:00 PM Moscow time, it was spotted near the coastlines of Krasnodar Krai and Crimea.
In March 2023, Reuters reported that the U.S. had resumed reconnaissance drone operations over the Black Sea following an incident where an MQ-9 crashed into the water. It was noted that on the same day, an RQ-4 Global Hawk conducted a reconnaissance flight in the area. CNN also confirmed this flight, referencing data from the FlightRadar24 service.
Earlier that month, a U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drone had crashed into the Black Sea west of Crimea. According to an initial statement by the U.S. European Command [USEUCOM], a Russian Su-27 fighter jet allegedly clipped the drone’s propeller with its wing during an interception, leading to the crash in international waters of the Black Sea. However, the Russian Defense Ministry maintained that the plane neither used onboard weapons nor made contact with the drone.
Source: Bulgarian Military