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A military drone from the United States Navy, the MQ-4C Triton with the call sign BLKCAT5, was detected operating this Monday in the Gulf of America north of Cuba, according to public tracking data released by accounts specializing 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.
His position was recorded at the coordinates 26.934°N, 85.250°W, to the west of Florida and north of Cuba.
The account FlconEYES clarified 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 toward the Gulf of America. MQ-4C Triton (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 class, with the call sign BLKCAT6, completed an extensive night 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 us once again to be ready to face serious threats, including military aggression."
These operations are part of the Southern Spear Operation, formalized by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on November 13 of 2025, a campaign by Southern Command with an estimated cost of 3 billion dollars aimed at transnational crime 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 square nautical miles in 24 hours, equipped with a 360-degree AESA radar.
The flight on this Monday is the third documented aerial surveillance event with the MQ-4C Triton around Cuba in less than three months: on February 6, the same BLKCAT5 was detected north of the island, accompanied by RC-135V/W Rivet Joint spy planes and two P-8A Poseidon aircraft, marking a sustained escalation of U.S. military presence in the region since mid-2025.
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