A RAF Boeing RC-135W (reg. ZZ664), departed from RAf Waddington, is carrying out this afternoon a surveillance mission over the Black Sea.
After what happened on September (an RAF RC-135 was intercepted by Russian fighters who fired a missile by mistake) usually these flights have always been escorted by RAF Typhoons that we used to track also on Flightradar24.
Today, however, the Rivet Joint seems to be going it alone. There is in fact no trace of Typhoons taking off from Cyprus but an RAF Airbus KC.2 (reg. ZZ334), which took off directly from the UK, is orbiting the Romanian coast.
This leads us to believe that there are in fact fighters flying in the area escorting the RC-135W, but this time they are operating with the ADS-B transnponder switched off.
The aerial surveillance in the area is provided by an Italian Air Force Gulfstream E.550 CAEW (reg. MM62303) orbiting over eastern romania.