This was likely the RQ 4B Global Hawk I posted Pictures of. Im wondering if they were flying the MQ 9 on the same pattern of the Global Hawk so that only one appeared to be there. Just a thought. If so…its pretty clever. If it is…theyve been doing it for months.
I flew it for 7 years in military and as a civilian it is not practical. It might get there, but I have a hard time believing that. It says its operational ceiling is 50k which I absolutely disagree with.
It was in international airspace. Who says it didn’t have a transponder? They have always had transponders. When I stopped flying them they were just finishing up testing and getting certification on a see and avoid logic much like airlines. This gave it the required certifications to fly in international airspace. That was in 2018.