The United States Air Force has explained why a mutli-million pound spy plane has been spotted landing in the West Country.
The U-2 spy plane has been deployed to RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire from Beale Air Force Base in California.
The plane, nick-named Dragon Lady is part of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing and arrives after the departure of a number of other American military aircraft.
With the arrival of such a distinctive plane over the skies, it prompted questions about its purpose.
In a statement to Gloucestershire Live, the USAF said: "The mission of the U-2 is to provide intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities in order to meet combatant commander objectives.
"The deployment of ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) assets to the European theater demonstrates U.S. commitment to our allies and partners in the region."
The U-2 has been in service since the 60s and was a key tool in the cold war, spying over Soviet countries and one was famously shot down over Russia at the height of tensions.
It can reach a top speed of 805km an hour and can travel 960km. It costs £7.2million to build.
The ultra-high altitude reconnaissance aircraft has been seen flying into and out of the Cotswolds base since last Friday.
It was also seen to have flown in on Thursday morning, having been spotted flying over Worcestershire and landing at RAF Fairford at around 8.37am.
Chatter on 'spotter' groups of Facebook suggests more could be on the way, as well as a return for B-52s.
The Gloucestershire air base recently saw the departure of B-2 stealh bombers and B52 bombers.
There has been a lot of USAF action at RAF Fairford as a deployment of B-2s from the 509th Bomb Wing, Whiteman Air Force Base, Missouri, was based there from Tuesday, August 27 until Friday, September 20.
And a lot more Americans are due at the base in the years to come.
More than 2,000 United States Air Force personnel and family members will be moving to RAF Fairford.
They will move from RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk over the next five years as part of the relocation of the RC-135 mission.
The RC-135 aircraft will use RAF Fairford as a Forward Operating Location and around 887 US military personnel and 1,240 family members are expected to begin relocating to Fairford in 2023
The number of the personnel on base is expected to be similar to the number of American personnel at Fairford in the late 1980s.
