{"id":208082,"date":"2026-04-18T11:04:26","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:04:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-navy-surveillance-drone-flies-mission-along-cubas-coast-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T11:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T11:04:26","slug":"us-navy-surveillance-drone-flies-mission-along-cubas-coast-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/us-navy-surveillance-drone-flies-mission-along-cubas-coast-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"US Navy surveillance drone flies mission along Cuba\u2019s coast – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

A U.S. military surveillance drone flew for several hours along the coast of Cuba in an uncommon sighting for the Caribbean island, according to flight-tracking sources.
The MQ-4C Triton, a U.S. Navy surveillance drone with call sign BLKCAT6, took off from a naval station in Jacksonville, Florida on April 16, flew along Cuba’s southern coast, circled in a holding pattern near Santiago de Cuba, then circled in another holding pattern near Havana before returning to the United States, according to Flightradar24, an online global flight tracking service.
The flight near Cuba’s coast took more than six hours, the service said.
Similar drones have been previously tracked in combat zones around the world, from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf, said Ian Petchenik, a spokesman for Flightradar24 told USA TODAY. But it’s the first time he remembered tracking one so close to Cuba, he said.
In response to a query about the drone flight, a U.S. Southern Command spokesperson said: “Due to Operational Security, we do not comment or speculate about ongoing or future operations.”
The Navy recently confirmed<\/a> an MQ-4C deployed in the war in Iran crashed on April 9.
Petchenik said his service tracked similar drones around Venezuela last year as the U.S. military built up forces there in the leadup to a dramatic raid to capture former president Nicolas Maduro on Jan. 3.<\/a>
“We’ve tracked them in the Black Sea with the war in Ukraine, in the Mediterranean, in the Persian Gulf,” Petchenik said. “Anywhere that the United States government needs a surveillance platform.”
Discovery of the drone flight comes during heightened tensions between Havana and Washington. Military planning for a possible Pentagon-led operation<\/a> in Cuba has been quietly ramping up in case\u00a0President Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0gives an order to intervene there, sources recently told USA TODAY.
The Trump administration has tightened longstanding sanctions and curbed oil shipments to Cuba as part of a broader campaign to force sweeping political changes on the communist-run island. Already mired in a severe economic crisis, the near-total blockade is pushing the country toward collapse. The White House has also threatened tariffs on countries supplying oil to Cuba, including Venezuela and Mexico, and added the island to its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
In recent weeks,\u00a0Trump has suggested<\/a>\u00a0he expects soon to have the “honor” of “taking Cuba, in some form,” adding: “Whether I free it, take it \u2212 I think I can do anything I want with it.”
Over the past year, the U.S. military has ramped up its use of unmanned aircraft<\/a> on missions throughout the Caribbean and South America.
Last year, the Pentagon used MQ-9 Reaper drones<\/a> to fire missiles on suspected drug-trafficking boats in the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea, according to The War Zone, an online site that reports on military technology and strategy.
And a drone identical to the one that flew near Cuba on Thursday \u2212 an MQ-4C Triton \u2212 departed from the same Jacksonville naval base in January and flew a 10-hour reconnaissance mission near Venezuela, according to Flightradar24.
The MQ-4C Triton is an autonomous, high-altitude, long-endurance maritime aircraft produced by Northrop Grumman and capable of operating above 50,000 feet for 24-plus hours with a range of 7,400 nautical miles, according to the manufacturer’s website.
The precise mission of the April 16 drone flight was not known, although Petchenik said the MQ-4C is usually deployed for surveillance purposes. That day, the aircraft spent just under two hours in a holding pattern about 40 miles off Santiago de Cuba before traveling back up Cuba’s southern coast and spending another two hours circling the airspace about 28 miles off the coast of Havana, he said.
It left the area at around 6:22 p.m. Eastern time.
Follow Jervis on X: @MrRJervis.<\/em><\/p>\n

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A U.S. military surveillance drone flew for several hours along the coast of Cuba in an uncommon sighting for the Caribbean island, according to flight-tracking sources.The MQ-4C Triton, a U.S. Navy surveillance drone with call sign BLKCAT6, took off from a naval station in Jacksonville, Florida on April 16, flew along Cuba’s southern coast, circled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":208083,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-208082","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-us","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208082"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208082\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/208083"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}