US Navy P-8A Poseidon on a new Black Sea mission

This morning a Boeing P-8A Poseidon of the US Navy took off from NAS Sigonella around 09:00 CEST for a new surveillance mission.

After crossing the Balkans, the aircraft carried out an air-to-air refueling over eastern Romania before heading to the Black Sea, where it began its usual patrol activity.

The Poseidon remained in the operational area for several hours, reaching the eastern part of the basin, before returning to Sigonella around 17:30 CEST.

This is the latest in a series of similar missions in recent days, with US Poseidons regularly pushing further east to keep a close eye on the region and, in particular, on the Russian naval base of Novorossiysk, which has become the main hub of the Black Sea Fleet after the progressive downsizing of operations in Sevastopol.