Russian Electronic Attack Disrupts American RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV’s Flight Over Estonia

An American RQ-4B Global Hawk UAV performing a reconnaissance flight near Estonia on Friday suffered a signal failure and began flying erratically after it came under Russian electronic attack.

Russian media getting the movement of the drone near Russian airspace from the flight tracking website, Flightradar said the high value drone began to move chaotically in the airspace.

The track of the abnormal flight of the reconnaissance drone with the call sign FORTE12 on the Flightradar24 resource indirectly confirms a software failure that occurred during the UAV flight most likely caused an intense electronic suppression.

However, despite the loss of contact with the operator, after atypical maneuvers, Global Hawk was able to return to the Sigonella base in Italy.

The electronic warfare operators of the Russian Armed Forces tried to drive away enemy reconnaissance aircraft from the northwestern borders of Russia, a Russian defense website said.

Russia has often accused NATO and the U.S. of using its high altitude reconnaissance drones to provide targeting data to Ukrainian fighter jets and artillery units.

In previous attacks on Russian warships in Sevastopol bay using the StormShadow missiles and unmanned sea vessels, the presence of Global Hawk UAVs has been observed near the Russian borders.