2 Typfoons intercepted an Iranian plane over Romania. US spy drone over the Black Sea

Two Typfoon planes intercepted an Iranian plane over Romania. US spy drone over the Black Sea.

Three of NATO’s best fighter jets made their first appearance in the theater of operations on the Alliance’s eastern border, and the Pentagon’s best drone made a unique appearance over the Black Sea.

No less remarkably, on Monday, a Ukrainian government plane defied the Russian Air Force and headed safely into the Balkans.

2 Typfoons intercepted an Iranian plane over Romania

The Kiev-operated plane, an Emergencies Ministry An-32 twin-engine firefighting aircraft, made an unprecedented wartime flight from Ukrainian airspace across the length of Hungary and landed at Zagreb airfield in Croatia. according to flight tracking data reviewed by the Kyiv Post.

At the same time that the Ukrainian plane was in the air near the Ukraine-Hungary border, NATO air operations planners concentrated at least three Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets.

At their closest, the British and Ukrainian planes were 50 kilometers apart.

Two of the British fighter jets, launched from NATO’s main airbase, Mihail Kogălniceanu Airport, 20 kilometers northwest of the Black Sea port city of Constanta, accelerated to a speed of over 500 knots, and arrived in airspace over eastern Hungary an hour later.

Their callsigns were, according to open-source data, RRR96661 and Ascot 963.

British fighter jets closely followed the flight path, trailing or leading by 10 kilometers, of an Iran Airways civilian Airbus A330-243.

The aircraft, with call sign IRA772, was flying a scheduled route between Tehran and Hamburg.

It was not clear why the Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter jets, which escorted the Iranian civilian plane, were raised.

According to FlightAware, the Iranian Airbus, after reaching a cruising altitude of about 11,500 meters, flew without incident from Iran to Turkey, via Bulgaria, Romania, far eastern Hungary, eastern Slovakia, Poland and Germany.

But while in central Romania and by the time it reached airspace over southern Poland, the Airbus had dramatically reduced its cruise speed from a standard cruise speed of 520-540 mph to an average of 280-290 mph, it showed flight tracking platform FlightAware.

It is not clear why the crew of the civilian plane chose to slow down.

Meanwhile, a Royal Air Force Airbus KC3 Voyager, call sign RRR9271, flew a typical south-to-north route along the eastern edge of NATO airspace on Monday, at one point passing within 50 kilometers of far west of the border with Belarus.

The aircraft typically performs airlift and strategic missions. In recent months, the British Army or other NATO air forces have deployed an aircraft of this type or similar along that patrol route almost daily.

Now, however, one of the three Royal Air Force Typhoon FGR.4 fighter jets, call sign RRR96663, left the formation and followed Voyager north, escorting it to Lithuania.

The Voyager escort marked a very rare instance when NATO flight planners placed a fighter jet with a transponder on next to a reconnaissance aircraft flying in close proximity to Belarusian airspace.

Ultra-equipped US spy drone, for the first time over the Black Sea

On Monday, the US Air Force operated a long-range Northop Grumman MQ-4C Triton maritime surveillance drone over the Black Sea for the first time in the Russian-Ukrainian theater of war.

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The Pentagon has flown a land-configured version of the drone hundreds of times since mid-2022 over the Black Sea, sometimes coming within 150 kilometers of mainland Russia.

The MC-4Q Triton is an upgraded version of the Global Hawk and designed specifically for overwater operations.

The high-tech robot plane flew within 200 kilometers of the Crimean peninsula on Monday before returning to its air base in Sicily, flight tracking data showed.

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Manufacturer Northrop Grumman describes the advanced reconnaissance equipment aboard the Triton as “the most advanced maritime ISR capability deployed.”

By 5 pm local time, a US Navy Poseidon was patrolling over the Danube Delta, and a Royal Air Force Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint, a four-engine reconnaissance aircraft loaded with electronic interception equipment and technicians, arrived in the airspace at almost the same time and followed a north-south patrol pattern 290 kilometers east of Crimea and Sevastopol, the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.