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A military drone from the United States Navy, the MQ-4C Triton with the identifier BLKCAT5, was detected operating in the Gulf of America north of Cuba this Monday, according to public tracking data released by accounts specialized in open-source intelligence.
The aircraft departed from Naval Air Station Mayport, in Jacksonville, Florida, as confirmed by the OSINT tracker HunterNight: "Departing from Naval Air Station Mayport, Jacksonville, to operate in areas of the Gulf of America."
The drone was tracked using ADS-B Exchange flying at a barometric altitude of 47,000 feet —approximately 14,326 meters— and at a speed of 300 knots, with a trajectory that started from Jacksonville heading south along the west coast of Florida before turning west/southwest over the Gulf of America.
Their position was recorded at the coordinates 26.934°N, 85.250°W, west of Florida and north of Cuba.
The FlconEYES account specified that, although the hexadecimal code AE687C is shared in the database with the Boeing P-8 Poseidon, it unmistakably refers to the MQ-4C Triton: "Active drone service towards the Gulf of America. MQ-4C Triton (it's not a P-8)."
The flight this Monday is the second one featuring an MQ-4C Triton around Cuba in less than a week.
On Thursday, April 17, another drone of the same type, with the call sign BLKCAT6, completed an extensive nighttime mission around the entire island, flying over Pinar del Río, Santiago de Cuba, and the vicinity of Havana.
Both flights occur days after the Cuban president Díaz-Canel delivered a maximum alert speech on April 16, on the anniversary of the start of the Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961: "The moment is extremely challenging and calls upon us once again to be ready to face serious threats, including military aggression."
These operations fall under the Southern Spear Operation, formalized by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on November 13, 2025, a campaign by Southern Command with an estimated cost of $3 billion aimed at transnational criminal networks and drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
The MQ-4C Triton is a high-altitude, long-endurance drone developed by Northrop Grumman, capable of operating for up to 30 continuous hours, reaching a service ceiling of 56,000 feet and covering up to four million nautical square miles in 24 hours, equipped with a 360-degree AESA radar.
The flight on Monday is the third aerial surveillance event with the MQ-4C Triton documented around Cuba in less than three months: on February 6, the same BLKCAT5 was spotted north of the island accompanied by RC-135V/W Rivet Joint spy planes and two P-8A Poseidon, marking a sustained escalation of U.S. military presence in the region since mid-2025.
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