As Russia’s ‘Syrian Express’ Takes the Long Road Home, NATO Watches

On the night of May 1, a US Air Force drone took off from the US base in Sigonella, Italy, ostensibly to investigate the activities of the Russian freighter. Sparta IV (IMO: 9743033). As previously reported by Maritime Executive, and later shared by Italian media, Sparta IV made a U-turn and did not enter the Black Sea, as it has done for years in a regular rotation; Instead, the ship embarked on a long journey across Europe to Kaliningrad, a detour that lasted a week.

The ship is known, along with others, as part of the “ghost fleet”, as reported by the NATO Defense College: a fleet of civilian cargo ships that supposedly transport military material from Russian bases in Syria to the line of the Ukrainian Front (also called “The Syrian Fleet”). express’). In the past, they may have violated the Montreux Convention.

After arriving in Baltiysk (in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad), where Sparta IV After more than 20 days, the ship left on April 16 for the Russian military base in Tartus, Syria, where it is expected to arrive in the first week of May.

Courtesy of Giangiuseppe Pili / Alessio Armenzoni

After crossing the Sicilian Channel, a Northrop Grumman MQ-4C reconnaissance drone of the US Navy took off from the Sigonella air base, in Sicily, on a night mission, following a route possibly parallel to that of the Sparta IV. When it was close to the ship, the drone entered a holding pattern, possibly monitoring the ship’s subsequent movements.

The American drone then returned to the American base in Sicily and Sparta IV He continued his trip to Syria, where he could arrive on May 4.

Giangiuseppe Pili (Ph. D.) is an assistant professor in the Intelligence Analysis Program at James Madison University. He is an Associate Fellow in Open Source Intelligence and Analytics at the Royal United Services Institute.

Alessio Armenzoni is a geospatial intelligence analyst working on projects related to maritime security. He studied at the Center for Higher Defense Studies of the Italian Ministry of Defense.