Extremely busy morning in the Black Sea theatre. rarely have we seen so many surveillance missions at once.
The RAF organised a mission to the Black Sea by one of its RC-135Ws departed from RAF Waddington (reg. ZZ664). As is now usual in such cases, the Rivet Joint was escorted by two Typhoons (callsigns PSYCHO61/62) which departed from RAF Akrotiri and were refuelled in flight by an Airbus KC.2 (reg. ZZ343) which also departed from Cyprus.
At the same time, at least three other missions by as many NATO assets were underway:
- Italian Air Force Gulfstream E.550 CAEW (reg. MM62303) over eastern Romania
- US Army Bombardier CL-60 ARTEMIS flying over Romania over the borders with Moldova and Ukraine
- USAF Boeing RC-135W (reg. 62-4138 – callsign JAKE11) also flying over eastern Romania