RAF surveillance flights over the Black Sea appear to have been suspended in the wake of Russian warplanes flying ‘dangerously’ close to a British spy plane last month.
Publicly available flight-tracking data reveals that no RAF Rivet Joint Surveillance aircraft have flown over the region since April 21.
That’s despite Defence Secretary John Healey vowing that the UK would not be deterred by last month’s ‘dangerous and unacceptable behaviour by Russian pilots towards an unarmed aircraft operating in international airspace’.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) disclosed last week that a Russian SU-35 fighter had flown so close to an unarmed RAF Rivet Joint surveillance plane in international air space over the Black Sea that it had triggered its emergency systems and disabled its autopilot.
And a SU-27 jet carried out six passes of the RAF plane, getting as close as 19 feet from its nose.
Now open-source flight tracking data shows that no Rivet Joint spy aircraft, which typically has a crew of up to 30, has returned to the Black Sea for the last five weeks.
Military sources told the Mail on Sunday that the RAF spy planes do not routinely switch off their transponders when in international air space and so can be publicly tracked on the basis that the UK wants the Russians to know it is watching them.
The sources added that normally, Rivet Joints would make two visits a week to the region.
A Russian SU-35 aircraft which flew over the Black Sea alongside an RAF Rivet Joint in April
On Saturday night, Tim Ripley – an analyst for the Defence Eye website – said the apparent suspension of the spy flights showed that the RAF was taking the latest Russian threat to its aircraft seriously given that in September 2022 what was said to be a ‘rogue’ Russian pilot attempted to shoot down a Rivet Joint.
Mr Ripley said: ‘I would suggest that Moscow’s action shows they have made a presumption that these flights are helping the Ukrainians and are clearly concerned.
‘But the RAF must take them seriously as in 2022 we saw a Russian fighter jet fire two missiles at a Rivet Joint, which both missed.
‘It was later claimed that this was a malfunction, but that is very unlikely.’
The MoD insisted on Saturday night that ‘we work with NATO allies on surveillance flights, but we will not help our adversaries by providing a detailed commentary’ on surveillance flights.
But a spokesperson repeated Mr Healey’s defiant response to last month’s Russian interceptions, saying: ‘This recent incident has not deterred the UK’s commitment to defend NATO, our allies and our interests from Russian aggression.’
