Something similar to the US Army’s ARTEMIS reconnaissance aircraft flew over the Moldovan-Romanian border on Saturday. Most likely, the task of the aircraft was to closely monitor Russian activity in Transnistria and, possibly, in the Black Sea.

ARTEMIDA plane

ARTEMIS is America’s newest private SIGINT reconnaissance aircraft

The Leidos-based ARTEMIS, which is already in use on select missions in Ukraine, is part of a growing fleet of data and information gathering aircraft owned by private American contractors, according to Romania’s Defense Ministry.

“These aircraft can see very far when they’re operating at 12,000 meters,” Mike Chagnon, vice president of Leidos Defense Group, said in an interview.

ARTEMIS, stationed in Europe

In November 2021, the first ARTEMIS aircraft was withdrawn from US military exercises in Arizona and deployed to Europe to be part of NATO’s efforts to monitor Russian forces near the Ukrainian border.

According to Chagnon, the plane flies on average six days a week for nine to ten hours a day. This type of aircraft has no weapons on board and does not fly in the so-called “disputed” airspace, which is included in the air defense zone of the warring parties.

“We are not entering a contentious environment,” he said. “We observe the contested environment from a great height, only looking down from the undisputed environment,” quoted Defense Romania.

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