For some time now, the Bombardier Challenger 650 spy plane, known as Artemis, which the United States (U.S.) military uses to collect data, has been circling in the airspace above Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
Although privately owned, the military leases it for its needs. The plane took off from Constanta in Romania, located on the Black Sea coast, where it is stationed due to the situation in Ukraine. Since the beginning of the Russian aggression, the plane has conducted hundreds of flights near the war zones.
“These planes can see very far while flying at 40.000 feet (about 12 kilometers),” said Mike Chagnon, Deputy President of the Defense Group at Leidos.
The concept of this spy plane differs from traditional eavesdropping on enemy communications on the battlefield. Instead, it allows the military to monitor sophisticated communications from enemy national states at a safe distance.
These planes participate in the High Accuracy Detection and Exploitation System (HADES) of the U.S. military, a strategy for collecting high-altitude intelligence data.
The idea is to replace the current turboprops used in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq in the search for roadside bombs and insurgents with more advanced and less vulnerable aircraft technology.
It is not known why the plane is currently flying, but previous reconnaissance flights were related to the needs of the EUFOR Althea mission.
Flights of Italian and Romanian air forces have been recorded. EUFOR does not need to obtain permission from the authorities of BiH for missions above BiH.
However, the capabilities of the Bombardier are such that its flight above BiH could theoretically be used to gather information from Serbia.
It should be recalled that the Bombardier Challenger 650 ARTEMIS took off from the international Romanian airport Mihail Kogalniceanu on February 23rd. The FlightRadar website reported the flight, but there was no other official data about this flight at the time, Radio Sarajevo writes.
E.Dz.
