Italian E-550 spy-radar plane spotted over Black Sea

An Italian Air Force radar plane flew toward the Black Sea for at least the third time in a week, and its position on public flight-tracking maps came out scrambled by heavy satellite navigation jamming, according to the Italian flight-tracking project ItaMilRadar.

ItaMilRadar reported the flight on Thursday. It identified the aircraft as a Gulfstream E-550 CAEW with registration MM62303 and call sign IAM1495, which took off from Pratica di Mare Air Base near Rome.

The E-550 is a Gulfstream G550 business jet converted into a flying radar station. Instead of the large rotating dish carried by older early warning planes, it has radar antennas built into its sides, letting the crew watch the sky in every direction and help direct other aircraft.

“Italian missions in the Black Sea theatre continue, with the E.550 CAEW becoming a regular presence in the region over the past few days,” ItaMilRadar wrote.

The most unusual part of the flight showed up on the tracking screen. The project said the plane’s track appeared “unusually distorted,” with a reported position that didn’t match where the aircraft was actually flying. That pattern is consistent with intense GNSS interference, which jams or fakes the satellite signals aircraft use to know where they are.

ItaMilRadar noted that the tracking data alone “cannot establish the precise source of the disruption.”

On Nov. 3, an ItaMilRadar map showed satellite navigation interference along nearly all of NATO’s eastern flank, from the southern Baltic Sea through Poland and Romania to the western Black Sea.

The project said the frequency of the flights “suggests sustained Italian participation” in NATO intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance work along the alliance’s eastern border.

Italy has flown two E-550As with the 14th Wing at Pratica di Mare since 2016 and 2017, and it has ordered more to bring the fleet to five. The aircraft are also busy elsewhere: one has been deployed to Saudi Arabia since March with Italy’s Task Force Air-Arabia.

“With at least three Italian CAEW missions recorded in the area within a week, the pattern of activity is becoming increasingly interesting,” ItaMilRadar wrote.