Unusual mission for an RAF Rivet Joint off the coast of Romania. The unusual aspect of the mission lies not so much in its objective (it is a SIGINT mission) that we have tracked several times but in the timing.
Usually, this type of mission is carried out in the afternoon when there is still daylight, with the RC-135W returning to the UK at sunset. In this case, however, the RAF Boeing RC-135W (reg. ZZ666) took off from RAF Weddington at 14:53 CET and arrived in the operating area only around 18:30.
In this type of mission, which involves the Rivet Joint always remaining within the Romanian and Bulgarian FIR, fighter escort is not provided (or at least they are not visible)
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