Unusual and never before recorded situation on the Black Sea.
A surveillance mission of n RAF Boeing RC-135W (reg. ZZ665) is underway. So far nothing unusual.
The strange thing is that in addition to the Rivet Joint we have also tracked two RAF Eurofigther FGR.4s (reg. ZK351, ZK362 – callsign PSYCHO61/62) that are escorting the aircraft over the Black Sea.
While the RC-135W took off from the UK, the two Typhoons departed from RAF Akrotiri, Cyprus, and carried out an in-flight refuelling over the east coast of Romania with the help of an RAF tanker, an Airbus KC.2 (reg. ZZ343), which also took off from Cyprus.
The entire mission is carried out while the aerial surveillance was provided by a NATO AWACS (Boeing E-3A, reg. LX-N90451) which took off from Geilenkirchen, Germany.
UPDATE (20 October 2022)
UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace tells MPs that on September 29 a RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint was being shadowed by 2 Russian Su-27s in international airspace when one of the Su-27s “released a missile in the vicinity of the Rivet Joint”. Rivet Joints are now escorted by fighter jets
This is the track of the September 29 mission
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