MQ-5B Hunter Drone From 66th US Brigade Captured Intact By Russian Forces
An American scout-attack drone was intercepted in the Crimean sky, Interfax and AP reported quoting the Rostec state corporation.
“Judging by side marking, the MQ-5B drone was part of the 66th US brigade of military intelligence with the main location in Bavaria,” the report on the website of the corporation reads.
The 66th Military Intelligence Brigade is a United States Army brigade, subordinate to United States Army Intelligence and Security Command and based at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, Wiesbaden, Germany. After years of history as a counter intelligence/intelligence group with headquarters in Munich and geographically dispersed detachments, it became a brigade on 16 October 1986, but was inactivated in July 1995. Reformed again as an intelligence group in 2002, it became a brigade again in 2008.
The unit’s mission is to provide intelligence support to U.S. Army Europe and U.S. Army Africa.
Part of the 66th Military Intelligence Brigade supports near real-time missions for deployed soldiers such as operations in Afghanistan and also Iraq.
According to the report, at the beginning of March, the American brigade was relocated to the Ukrainian Kirovohrad, from where drones commit reconnaissance raids in the direction of Crimea and Russian border areas.
Earlier, they reportedly appeared in the Kherson region, in the area of the Crimean roadblock Chongar.
“According to some data, the American reconnaissance brigade had 18 MQ-5B drones in its arsenal. This is the second time the American UAV is intercepted over Crimea,” the report says, Voice of Russia reported.
“The drone was at the height of about 4 thousand meters and was practically invisible from the earth. It was possible to break the drone’s link with its American operators with the help of the EW (electronic warfare) complex Avtobaza. As a result, the device made an emergency landing and passed into the possession of the self-defense forces almost unbroken,” the report says.
The IAI RQ-5 Hunter unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was originally intended to serve as the United States Army’s Short Range UAV system for division and corps commanders.
The RQ-5 is based on the Hunter UAV that was developed by Israel Aircraft Industries. A version armed with the Northrop Grumman GBU-44/B Viper Strike weapon system is known as the MQ-5A/B.
