Unusual mission today for a US Navy Northrop Grumman MQ-4C (reg. 16962 – c/s BLACKCAT5).
The drone, which took off from NAS Sigonella, is conducting a surveillance mission in the Gulf of Sidra, between Benghazi and Misrata. The peculiarity of the mission lies in the fact that we had never seen US Navy drones venture so deep into the Gulf of Sidra before. Indeed, there would be nothing unusual about it since the drone has always operated in international airspace.
However, it is worth recalling that during Gaddafi’s time, Libya had claimed the entire area within the Gulf of Sidra as its national airspace (and underlying territorial waters), and the line closing off the gulf was nicknamed the “Line of Death” because anyone crossing it would be shot down (or sunk).
If today Libya continues to unilaterally consider this area as its exclusive domain, this mission demonstrates how the USA rightly does not recognize the Libyan unilateral declaration as having any value.
Moreover, today at around 2:30 PM CEST, a RADA Airlines Ilyushin Il-62 (reg. EW-450TR) from Moscow is expected to arrive in Benghazi. This is further evidence of the increasing Russian presence in this area of Libya.