London. July 22. INTERFAX-A long-range heavy reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle of the NATO command RQ-4D Phoenix on Thursday flew near the western regions of Belarus, where Russian servicemen arrived, it follows from the monitoring of western aviation resources.
According to them, the RQ-4D Phoenix reconnaissance drone of the NATO Ground Surveillance Force (Alliance Ground Surveillance Force - AGS) cruised along the border of the Brest region for more than an hour and a half, where the first military echelon with military personnel and equipment from Russia arrived in preparation for the joint strategic exercise "West-2021".
"The first military echelon with servicemen and equipment of the Russian Federation has arrived in Brest. They will take part in the joint strategic exercise of the armed forces of the Republic of Belarus and the Russian Federation "West-2021", the Ministry of Defense of Belarus reported on Thursday. The Zapad-2021 exercise will be held at the training grounds of the two countries from September 10 to 16. The topic of the upcoming exercise is "The use of groups of troops (forces) in the interests of ensuring the military security of the Union State".
The RQ-4D Phoenix took off from the Sigonella Air Base on the Italian island of Sicily. The route of his flight to the western borders of Belarus passed over Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine and Poland.
The NATO Ground Surveillance Forces, which are located at the main operational base of Sigonella, have five RQ-4D Phoenix drones delivered in 2019-2020 by the American corporation Northrop Grumman.
NATO manages and maintains them on behalf of all the allies of the alliance. The development of the RQ-4D UAV was 95% based on the US Air Force Block 40 Global Hawk strategic drone. The Alliance variant has been adapted to the requirements of NATO to provide the alliance with modern intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities.
Similar drones of the US Air Force RQ-4A Global Hawk, which are also based at the Sigonella base, are used to conduct many hours of reconnaissance flights, including near the western and southern borders of Russia.
The RQ-4A Global Hawk drone is designed to conduct strategic aerial reconnaissance to a great depth of the enemy's territory for a long time. When flying at high altitudes, it is able to survey large areas, carry out reconnaissance of point targets with high resolution and transmit intelligence information to the command in real time.
