Yesterday, Britain’s RAF resumed reconnaissance operations over the central Black Sea south of Crimea. An RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft turned east after flying in a north-west-southeast race track pattern off the Romanian coast for some period of time. The RC-135 and a pair of Typhoon fighter jets escorting it could be tracked on the flightradar24.com flight-tracking website.
It didn’t take the Russians long to respond to the presence of the British aircraft. “The Su-27 fighter jet was alerted to prevent a violation of the State border of the Russian Federation,” the Defense Ministry reported in a statement. “The Russian fighter jet identified the air targets as one RC-135 strategic reconnaissance aircraft and two Typhoon fighter jets of the U.K. Air Force. As the Russian fighter jet approached, a foreign military aircraft made a U-turn away from the State border of the Russian Federation.”
The incident is notable, as this appears to be the first time that NATO reconnaissance aircraft, manned or unmanned, have appeared over the central part of the Black Sea near Crimea since, about a month ago, the Russian air defense forces were able to chase away a U.S. Global Hawk drone without having to risk shooting it down in international airspace. U.S. reconnaissance efforts subsequently shifted northwards, towards NATO’s land borders with Russia up to Kaliningrad.
