The USAF Northrop Grumman RQ-4B (reg. 09-2039 – c/s FORTE11) is returning to NAS Sigonella at this moment (11:30 CEST), after taking off from the Sicilian base about 24 hours ago. The drone carried out a mission in the Baltic Sea area, focusing entirely on Estonia, from where it monitored the area of St. Petersburg and, most importantly, the stretch of sea between Russia and Finland. In recent days, there had been an incursion of Russian military ships into Finnish territorial waters.
It is noteworthy that it has been almost a month since we last recorded FORTE missions over the Black Sea (the reason is unknown, but it is possible that incidents with Russian aircraft are being avoided).