An EP-3 Aries reconnaissance plane with the aircraft number 157326 flew out of a US Air Force base on Crete on an hours-long mission off the Crimean coast and Russia’s southern region of Krasnodar.
In a parallel development, a RQ-4A Global Hawk strategic drone with aircraft number 10-2043, operating out of an airbase on Sicily, likewise cruised along the Crimean and Kuban coastlines, CivMilAir reported.
Heading back to Souda Bay from a Black Sea mission 👀
— CivMilAir ✈ (@CivMilAir) 26 февраля 2018 г.
🇺🇸 US Navy
EP-3 Aries 157326 pic.twitter.com/ugFqaWVjyu
US surveillance aircraft have been regularly spotted near the Russian border since January.
Still could not resist and again issued a https://t.co/OIjpciZLEt for their VRS, stop deceiving users, and give out other resources for their own. pic.twitter.com/F6fURZCnCl
— 93o4w8vmt (@93o4w8vmt) 26 февраля 2018 г.
All earlier calls by the Russian Defense Ministry for Washington to cease and desist from flying such missions in the direct vicinity of Russian airspace have been turned down by the Pentagon.
54,000ft over the Black Sea — around Crimea & along the Russian coastline
— CivMilAir ✈ (@CivMilAir) 26 февраля 2018 г.
🇺🇸 US Air Force
RQ-4 Global Hawk#UAV #drone pic.twitter.com/C1Dq3xVKad
READ MORE: Sharp-Eyed Observers Spot US Spy Planes Snooping Along Russia's Borders