Tag: RAF Fairford

US spy drones out of ‘RAF’ Fairford – public meeting and demonstration in January 2025

Chris Cole

Drone Wars, together with Oxfordshire Peace Campaign and CND, will host an online public meeting and in-person demonstration in January 2025 to oppose flights of US Global Hawk and Reaper drones from RAF Fairford military base in Glos.

The US Air Force (USAF) has applied to the UK’s air regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to change airspace rules to allow RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper drones to fly regularly from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

In August 2024, a US Global Hawk drone flew into Fairford, conducted two sorties over the following days and then departed.  It appears these were two ‘demonstration’ flights to trial temporary air corridors.  Following a Post-Implementation Review, in which it was revealed that ten flights into Birmingham airport had to be diverted because of the drones flight, the CAA has ordered the USAF/MoD to investigate “mitigation strategies” to resolve the impact on Birmingham Airport.

According to one document submitted to the CAA, the “working assumption” by the USAF is that the corridors would be activated 2-3 times per week but they are “exploring activation periods that exceed these assumption, both in frequency and time periods of utilisation.”  The proposal is that the drones would take off and land overnight: “all activations will be between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise unless in extremis.”   While the application to fly Global Hawks from Fairford is on-going, the application to fly Reapers has been ‘paused’, likely till after Global Hawk flights have been approved,

Online public Meeting:  Wednesday 15th January, 7.00pm – 8.30pm

Join us online to learn more about these dangerous development
and its worrying consequences both locally and globally.

Please register here:  Eventbrite registration

Demonstration at RAF Fairford:  Saturday 25th January, 1pm, Main Gate

 UPDATE:  Protest will go ahead.  

Bring banners and placards, food for lunch, and dress appropriately for the weather.

Demonstration will be by the main gate  at corner of Horcott Road /Maine Street.
Postcode for Sat Nav: GL7 4DL

There will be parking for some cars at main gate with additional parking nearby (See below)

There are some spaces available on mini-bus from Oxford  £10/£5 low-waged.

Pick up point will be the Ashmolean Museum with minibus departing at 11.15 am.
To book a place email: oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk  on first come/first served basis.

If you can make a donation to cover cost of transport we would be grateful.  Read more →

US ramps up spy drone surveillance of Occupied Palestine, Syria, Jordan and Lebanon

Cora Morris
With US Global Hawk drones to fly from Gloucestershire, US-UK collaborations are set to increase
USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk drone

The US military appears to have significantly increased the frequency of its reconnaissance drone missions over Occupied Palestine and neighbouring countries, according to flight tracking information identified by Drone Wars. The flights point to intensified US intelligence interests in the region, though the question of their precise purpose – whether general military intelligence, or more targeted surveillance – remains unclear.

The United States maintains an air base at Sigonella Airport in Southern Italy, from which it flies Global Hawk, MQ-4C Triton, and Reaper drones over Europe and the Middle East. While Reaper drones appear only sporadically in publicly-available flight radar registers, data shows that Global Hawks stationed at Sigonella flew missions across the Mediterranean at least twenty times through September, October and early November 2024, regularly crossing into the airspace over Gaza, the West Bank, and Jordan. On other occasions, flights spent hours circling off the coast of Israel, or, in the case of a Triton naval surveillance drone, flew northwards over Lebanon and Libya. Available data suggests that this marks a significant increase, with only one such deployment of a Global Hawk from Sigonella identifiable across June and July. As war and genocide in the region has escalated, expanding to devastating consequence into Lebanon and Syria, this uptick demonstrates an increased dependence on drone capabilities for US military intelligence.

The Global Hawk drone was developed by Northrop Grumman in the 1990s to maximise aerial surveillance capacity for the US military. With its advanced sensors and extensive operational range, the drone can remain airborne for over 30 hours, covering vast areas without the risk posed to crewed aircraft in territories deemed hostile. The drone’s high-resolution imaging systems and radar communications enable it to provide real-time data that informs military strategy, but which leaves communities subject to its missions under relentless aerial surveillance.

Global Hawk 11-2046 mission from Sigonella Air Base, 13th November 2024

In Palestine, surveillance is already inescapable. Long prior to the onset of the current war, Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been consistently subjected to round-the-clock observation, tracking and monitoring through extensive infrastructures of surveillance, including ubiquitous facial recognition technology. Israeli quadcopter drones, many of which are also fitted with deadly attack capabilities, hover constantly. Palestinians report the psychological harm wrought by this permanent monitoring, which threatens to enact more death at any moment. Read more →

US military drones set to fly from UK from 2024

Chris Cole
Top: US RQ-4 Global Hawk, bottom: US MQ-9 Reaper

The US Air Force (USAF) has applied to the UK’s air regulator, the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), to change airspace rules to allow RQ-4 Global Hawk and MQ-9 Reaper drones to fly from RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire.

The application for Global Hawk flights envisages them beginning in 2024.  A recent update of the Reaper application states that while “the USAFE requirement for MALE RPAS at RAF Fairford remains” it is temporarily pausing the process while it reassesses how to comply with the current regulatory framework.  While nominally described as an ‘RAF’ base, Fairford is wholly operated by the US Air Force.

Currently, drones that fly beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) are not allowed to fly in the UK unless in segregated airspace. The USAF, through the Ministry of Defence (MoD), is seeking to put in place segregated corridors to allow these drones to transit through UK airspace.  The RAF is currently going through the same process to enable it to fly the UK’s new ‘Protector’ armed drones from RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.  The USAF may be awaiting the CAA’s decision in this case (due very soon) before proceeding with its application to fly Reaper drones.

According to one document submitted to the CAA, the “working assumption” by the USAF is that the corridors would be activated 2-3 times per week but they are “exploring activation periods that exceed these assumption, both in frequency and time periods of utilisation.”  The proposal is that the drones would take off and land overnight: “all activations will be between 1 hour after sunset and 1 hour before sunrise unless in extremis.”

Lack of oversight

If this change is agreed there will be very little chance of the public  knowing when or where these US drones will be used operationally.  While the government has said previously that combat operations from US bases in the UK are subject to “joint decision” in reality the government has little say or control over operations from US bases as the framework under which they operate  – the 1951 Status of Forces Agreement – gives jurisdiction to the US, not the UK.

This is a very significant move.  While the war in Ukraine will no doubt be at the forefront of people’s thinking in regard to this development, the US uses drones – surveillance and armed – to enable it undertake air strikes right across the globe, both in areas of armed conflict, but also beyond for so-called ‘targeted killings’. The UN, many individual states and international law experts have condemned the use of drones for these unlawful operations describing them as extrajudicial killings which undermine global peace and security.  Read more →