This morning we record the presence of two French assets in the Black Sea theatre.
The first is a French Air Force Beech King Air B.350 ALSR (reg. F-RACG) which took off from Bucharest and is operating off the Danube Delta. The aircraft arrived in Romania on 9 May and it is capable of performing intelligence missions with minimal logistical requirements and ease of deployment.
The second aircraft is a French Navy Bréguet Atlantic ATL.2 (reg. 20) which took off from Souda Bay AB where it has been deployed for a few days. The Atlantic is instead operating over the Black Sea but, unlike the Beech, is operating with the ADS-B transponder switched off when it arrived at sea.
I doubt that this is anything more than an attempt to intimidate the Russians, unfortunately for the NATO alliance Russia appears to have taken their measure & appears to be fully confident in their assessment that no NATO member country would take the risk of being nuked, because of an unwise attack on Crimea or the southern military district headquartered in Rostov on Don.