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:
