Over the past week, we have observed an Italian Air Force ATR P-72A (reg. MM62298) deploying twice to Souda Bay AB. During its first visit, no specific mission from Crete could be tracked, but this second deployment was different.
Yesterday morning, the Italian aircraft carried out a lengthy patrol mission (about 5 hours) over the eastern Mediterranean. After reaching the southwest coast of Cyprus, it operated at low altitude—around 5,000 feet or possibly even lower—orbiting over two distinct areas.
This morning, the aircraft returned to Sigonella, before heading back to Souda in the afternoon. From there, it took off again for a mission over the eastern Mediterranean, which is still underway as of 18:30 CEST.
On the same day, a U.S. Navy Boeing P-8A also took off from Souda Bay (a base where P-8s are occasionally but rarely deployed), conducting a typical ISR mission off the coast of Syria. However, on its return leg to Crete, the U.S. aircraft also loitered over the same area where the Italian P-72 had operated a few hours earlier.
No noteworthy civilian vessels were present in the area, but it is worth recalling that the Russian submarine Novorossiysk could be operating there, along with one of the few remaining Russian naval units in the Mediterranean (a brief summary of those units is available here).
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