A NATO aircraft carried out a second reconnaissance flight over the Black Sea this week. The aircraft took off from its permanent base in Constanta, Romania, and headed for the southern part of the water area, where it performed repeated courses from west to east and back.
This is a Bombardier ARTEMIS II - an aircraft used to collect intelligence and electronic information. The flight passed over international waters, without the machine entering the airspace of another country. The details were quoted by Vedomosti, citing a source in the air traffic control services of the European Union.
“The plane flew over the southern part of the Black Sea from west to east“, the source quoted by the publication said. According to data from a previous registered mission, ARTEMIS II took off from Constanta at 08:47 Moscow time and remained in the air for about eight hours. On another flight, the machine spent almost nine hours over the area.
The plane operates outside civilian routes
ARTEMIS II usually performs aerial surveillance and reconnaissance tasks. The platform is equipped to intercept and analyze radio electronic emissions, communications and radar signals. This allows data to be collected on the activity of military sites and systems over a wide area without the aircraft entering foreign airspace.
In a previous mission, the aircraft was detected at an altitude of about 11.5 kilometers - outside the routes used by civil aviation. ARTEMIS II flights over the Black Sea have been monitored regularly since the beginning of June, with the aircraft using Constanta as an operational base.
NATO has not published a separate statement with operational details for the specific mission. In official information on air surveillance on the eastern flank, the Alliance states that the reconnaissance and observation flights over the Baltic and Black Seas are part of efforts to maintain a common picture of security in the region.
Sources: Vedomosti