Spotted: Northern Edge exercises have brought a drone to Alaska

By
Suzanne Downing
-
10

Spotted on radar tracking websites by hobbyists in Alaska this week was a large drone, which was appearing to take part in the Northern Edge military exercises that have been in the skies over Alaska. (The drone in the photo above is of the type that is in Alaska, an MQ-9B Sea Guardian, but the photo is from the skies of California.)

The drone appeared south of Kodiak airspace on Wednesday, along with what appeared to be a Navy jet.

MQ-9B N390MC by General Dynamics came up the California coast from El Mirage Field Airport, after having recently finished working in the Navy’s Group Sail exercise.

Northern Edge 2023, a joint military training exercise, will continue through May 19. Operating locations include Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks International Airport, and Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, among others.

Alaskans have noticed a lot more warbird activity in the skies as a result. The training area involved is mainly the 65,000 square miles of airspace above the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex, and another 42,000 square miles in the Gulf of Alaska.

About 10,000 U.S. service members, five ships, and more than 150 aircraft are participating this year. Also taking part are military personnel from the United Kingdom and Australia.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Years ago I saw that thing above my property. I called the base and asked why it was over my property. I said I did not feel safe and wanted them to know they were flying over private property and I objected in case they wondered about occupancy I wanted them to change their route. They said ok.

    • Guess what.

      Your private property does not extend to the airways above it.

      Ever get the feeling that people tell you what you want to hear just to get you off the phone?

  2. We have enough drones on the assembly. The military should have borrowed them,except they already had Dunbar for a while

  3. Ummm, there have been drones here for over 5 years. They have them on Fort Wainwright, we built them their own hangar. This is not new.

  5. Are we seeing the death of the traditional American pilot? Why take away good paying skilled jobs of Americans. 10 years from now no one will know how to fly except Alaskan bush pilots, but of course democrats won’t let them fly our military craft as it will be deemed too unsafe to have the controls in the hands of the uncontrolled.

    • Good point acfak. We need to ban power tools also…. and revert back to hand powered tools of the Victorian era. According to your logic we must resurrect the traditional American tradesman. How about the traditional American workhorse. Let us replace all automobiles and farm equipment with horses-drawn vehicles. Perhaps 90% of us will die of starvation but hey, we must accept the cost of your brilliant retrogressive thinking.

  6. Hey, peoples… this is a MILITARY EXERCISE..Military in training or getting up to date training on protecting our skies.. Wait until the Russians are wanting to join us..They have a “habit” of showing up during exercises. (past experiences). Unless invited, THEN and ONLY then (when Russians??)show up…let they play their “games”.

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