It had been quite some time (or perhaps it had never happened before) since we saw such a massive presence of U.S. assets in the Eastern Mediterranean.
All three took off from NAS Sigonella: a USN Boeing P-8A, a USN Northrop Grumman MQ-4C (reg. 169660 – c/s BLACKCAT5), and a USAF Northrop Grumman RQ-4B (reg. 09-2039 – c/s FORTE12).
The area is particularly tense for at least two reasons: on one hand, Syria, with a significant Russian military presence (airbase in Latakia and naval base in Tartus); on the other, the crisis between Israel, Lebanon, and Palestine, which erupted after Hamas’ terrorist attacks on October 7 and Tel Aviv’s violent response.
What makes the situation unusual is the simultaneous presence of two U.S. drones in the area (usually only those of the USNavy are present), contradicting those who say that at this stage the U.S. does not want to risk their assets by potentially getting involved in incidents with the Russians (there are definitely some SU-30SMs based in Latakia).