NATO reconnaissance aircraft identified over Black Sea

MOSCOW, July 9. /TASS/. A NATO Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II reconnaissance and target acquisition aircraft has been identified over neutral waters in the southern Black Sea, a source in EU air traffic control circles told TASS.

"The reconnaissance aircraft is flying from west to east and back in the southern Black Sea over neutral waters, without entering the airspace of any country," the source said. He noted that the aircraft departed from an airfield in Constanta, Romania, where it has been based for several months, and then flew through flight areas controlled by Romanian and Bulgarian air traffic controllers. "The aircraft is operating at an altitude of about 10.5 kilometers, outside the flight corridors designated for civil aviation," the source noted.

He recalled that this is the same reconnaissance aircraft that has been circling near Russia’s Kaliningrad Region for two consecutive days, using Lithuanian and Polish airspace, as well as sectors over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The day before, a Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic reconnaissance aircraft belonging to the British Air Force was also detected near the border of the Russian region. The latter flew in from RAF Waddington to conduct several surveillance flights along the border of the Kaliningrad Region and then returned.

The source noted that Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II flights over the Black Sea have been observed on multiple occasions over the past month, and several times even on weekends, which was rarely the case before.