Kazakhstan government officials have accused Uzbekistan of violating its airspace with an unmanned aircraft, backing the claim up with video showing the purported incursion. The incident happened February 16 in the area of Beyneu, on the far western end of the Uzbekistan-Kazakhstan border, according to KTK TV, citing sources in the security services. The government also has released a shaky video, which can be seen at KTK’s site.
“The aircraft was located in the Kazakh air space for about fifteen minutes. And it went unnoticed by air defence units because it flew at too low an altitude. The aircraft, presumably belonging to Uzbekistan, flew near two border posts, turned around and headed back toward the border and escaped to a neighbouring state. Representatives of the Air Defence Forces and the intelligence units of the Ministry of Defense are involved in the situation. Whether the Uzbek authorities will be sent a protest note, is still unknown.”
Uzbekistan isn’t known to operate any unmanned aircraft of its own, though it has in the past allowed the U.S. to launch reconnaissance UAS from its territory. It doesn’t seem implausible that the U.S. is secretly operating UAS from Uzbekistan, but they would presumably be directed to the south, to Afghanistan, rather than buzzing Kazakhstan border towns.
Stephen Trimble of Flight Global commented: “To analyse its origins, we’ll use the classical analytical device known as the Goldilocks method. Predator/Gray Eagle/Reaper is too big, yet the UAV still seems too small to be a Hermes 900. China’s Pterodactyl/Wing Loong, however, seems just right.”
Source: Eurasia Net, Flight Global