Record number of reconnaissance drones detected over Black Sea

A record number of reconnaissance aircraft was detected over the Black Sea and Romania, Romanian publication Adevarul said.

There are many unmanned aerial vehicles and aircraft that fly with reconnaissance purposes over the Black Sea and Romania on a regular basis, but there was a record number of them on August 22, the publication said.

Two Boeing E-3 Sentry early warning aircraft, one Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, US Navy's Lockheed EP-3E Aries II and a Bombardier Challenger 650 ARTEMIS were spotted in the region on August 22.

The Bombardier Challenger 650 ARTEMIS looks like a civilian aircraft, but it has electronic intelligence equipment on board.

A Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk jet drone was spotted over the Black Sea as well. The aircraft carries radar stations to monitor vast areas.

The Russian Aerospace Forces detected MQ-9 Reaper and TB2 Bayraktar drones as they were conducting reconnaissance in the area of the Crimean peninsula. Russian fighter aircraft were scrambled to cause the UAVs to fly away from Russian airspace. The Russian fighters forced the drones to change the direction of their flight and they left the air reconnaissance areas.