Thursday, February 10, 2022

Tracking Military Aircraft Over Europe -- February 10, 2022

I was up most of the night tracking military aircraft over England and Europe. I "caught" a C-5 enroute from Kuwait to RAF Mildenhall, England, and a KC-135T Stratotanker, departing/returning to Mildenhall, refueling track over northern Europe.

But my best "catch," without question, was spotting a Global Hawk drone over Kiev, running multiple tracks. I watched for about an hour before stopping. When I returned, I was unable to find it. It had departed from an unknown base in the Mediterranean. I'm thinking Sigonella, Sicily.

See graphic below:

  • Global Hawk -- call sign, Forte-One-Two
  • multiple tracks over northeast Ukraine, along the Belarus border where it was reported that the Russians had just begun joint training operations
  • the drone departed from an unknown base in the Mediterranean
  • note the altitude: 51,000 feet
  • ground speed: 337 knots
  • not much other data provided

Websites:

  • Global Hawk, Northrop Grumman;
  • Global Hawk, wiki;
  • Phoenix drones, Seapower: all five NATO RQ-4D Phoenix drones are on station at Sigonella, Sicily, November 13, 2020;

From last night:

From Seapower:

4 comments:

  1. Did you happen too catch the 3 B52's playing over Britain this morning? I'm guessing Putin was amused.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Shoot! [Not literally.] I missed the B-52s. Thank you. I will keep my eyes out for them.

      Delete
  2. My brother in law was a B-52 driver for 26 yrs. He turned down wing commander at Minot to retire!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That may have been a tough decision. I don't know. Minot AFB has had a lot of problems over the years, and the wing commander gets the blame even if not directly responsible. Probable made the right decision, especially for his family.

      Delete

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