The joint surveillance operation follows a joint British-French declaration vowing to continue supporting Ukraine and deter Russia.
The United Kingdom and France were part of an unusual mission over the Black Sea last week. In fact, on Apr. 11, 2025, the Royal Air Force (RAF), French Air and Space Force (FASF,Armée de l’Air et de l’Espace) and the French Navy (FN,Marine Nationale) deployed multiple fighter, Airborne Early Warning and Control (AEW&C), Signal Intelligence (SIGINT) and tanker aircraft for a surveillance mission over the Black Sea and Eastern Europe.
Thanks to official images and videos, as we as data from flight tracking websites, it was possible to determine the composition of this mission:
- At least one (more likely two) FASF Rafale C;
- One FASF E-3F Sentry AWACS (Airborne Early Warning and Control System);
- Two FASF A330 MRTT tankers;
- Two FN Rafale Ms;
- One FN E-2C Hawkeye AEW&C aircraft;
- Two RAF Typhoon FGR4s;
- One RAF RC-135W Rivet Joint;
- One RAF Voyager KC3 tanker.
The French Joint Staff called this operation as “surveillance of a strategic area for the security of the continent,” with the goals to “guarantee freedom of navigation and access to shared spaces,” most likely referring to international airspace and waters, as well as “maintain security and prevent any threat.”
The U.K.’s Permanent Joint Headquarters similarly said the two services “worked seamlessly on a surveillance mission in Eastern Europe.” It further added that “air activity like this is crucial for European security, and testing our ability to work with NATO allies.” The Russian MoD did not release any statement regarding this joint mission.
🔎Always watching!✈️
📍Black Sea
Today, @RoyalAirForce and @Armee_de_lair Aircraft, worked seamlessly together on a surveillance mission in Eastern Europe.🇬🇧🇫🇷
Air activity like this is crucial for European security, and testing our ability to work with @NATO allies.🌍 pic.twitter.com/jpBrzYBKJX
— Defence Operations 🇬🇧 (@DefenceOps) April 11, 2025
Interestingly, the operation follows an Apr. 10 joint declaration by Britain and France vowing to continue working on a “multinational effort to support Ukraine’s transition to peacetime from a position of strength.” The goal is to “reassure, support, and protect Ukraine to ensure that any peace settlement safeguards against the risk of future Russian aggression.”
“Our work today builds on the detailed military planning conducted by the French and British Chiefs of Staff last month, which is supported by hundreds of military planners across Europe and beyond, and directly supports the ambitions outlined by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and President Macron at recent international summits,” the statement said. “We are carrying out this work together, side by side, to ensure the best possible outcome for Ukraine.”
📍Mer Noire | Coopération 🇫🇷🇬🇧
Surveillance d’une zone stratégique pour la sécurité du continent avec un dispositif aérien complet.
➡️ Garantir la liberté de navigation et l’accès aux espaces partagés.
➡️ Préserver la sécurité et de prévenir toute menace. https://t.co/d4risgdCtf pic.twitter.com/Bwtyc1G2qM
— Armée française – Opérations militaires (@EtatMajorFR) April 12, 2025
Aircraft routes
While the RAF Typhoon FGR4s and the Voyager KC3 (British designation for the Airbus A330 MRTT) departed from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus, where they are forward deployed, the RC-135W Rivet Joint departed from its home station at RAF Waddington.
The FASF A330 MRTT refueler’s and the E-3F Sentry’s points of origin is not confirmed, but it is likely they departed from their home stations at Istres-Le Tubé Air Base and Avord Air Base, respectively. As for the Rafale, a photo released shows a Rafale C of the Escadron de Chasse 3/30 Lorraine at Escadron de Chasse 3/30 Lorraine, although it is unclear if this is a file photo.
Spicy RAF recon over the Black Sea.
RRR7211 is RC-135W Rivet Joint SIGINT ZZ665 #43C39C
FANG0011 is Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 ZK425 #43C7A2
FANG0012 is Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 ZK428 #43C7A5
— Evergreen Intel (@vcdgf555.bsky.social) 11 aprile 2025 alle ore 15:15
French Navy Rafale Ms and the E-2C Hawkeye were also launched from the FNS Charles De Gaulle.
Flight tracks shared on X by ‘OSINTtechnical’ and the U.K’s Joint Headquarters show that most of the aircraft only limited themselves to the south-central and western part of the Black Sea, not venturing eastwards. Except for the two RAF Typhoons (callsign ‘FANG0011’ and ‘FANG12’) and the Voyager KC3 (callsign RRR9944), which flew in a northerly direction from Akrotiri, the FASF A330 (callsign ‘FAF4093’) and the RAF RC-135W (callsign ‘RRR7211’) entered the operational area from Romanian airspace. The E-3F Sentry does not figure in the tracks.
The RAF Voyager flew over Turkey, skirting the Bulgarian and southern Romanian coastline, and circling over southeastern Romania, where it could have conducted aerial refueling in support of the Typhoons. The track doesn’t show it entering the skies over the Black Sea. The FASF A330 MRTT meanwhile flew over southern Romania and circled above the Black Sea’s waters outside northeastern Bulgaria.
Available ADS-B traffic via @flightradar24
FAF4093- French KC3 tanker
RRR9954- British KC3 tanker
RRR7211- British RC-135
FANG11 and FANG12- British Typhoon escortshttps://t.co/mEUK68fazl pic.twitter.com/ynShkLNRJF
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) April 12, 2025
The RC-135W flew a north to south track over the western Black Sea, alongside Romania’s coasts, continuing further east over the Black Sea, inverting the route once directly south of Sevastopol in Crimea, still in international airspace over the central part of the water body. The Typhoons followed the same route, escorting the SIGINT aircraft.
Expert flight tracker ‘itamilradar’ also perused live flight tracks, showing two French A330 MRTT tankers (the other bearing the callsign ‘FAF4092’) over eastern Romania.
The tracks observed do not include the French Navy Rafale Ms and E-2C Hawkeyes, as well as the FASF E-3F Sentry, so it is not possible to determine in which area they conducted the patrol.
Interestingly a month prior, on Mar. 11, reports by Kyiv Post and ‘MilitaryNewsUA’ showed flight tracking data of the two ASF Rafales (callsigns FAF4220 and FAF4221) flying further east crossing the central Black Sea. The Rafale came “within 170 km” of Novorossiysk in Russia’s Krasnodar region, “before reversing course to Bulgaria.”
Operations
Pictures released by the French Joint Staff show an E-3F Sentry AWACS receiving fuel from the French A330 MRTT. Another image shows a Rafale C flying with two MICA IR and two MICA EM air-to-air missiles.
March 2025 | Europe
🇺🇸🇬🇧 RC-135V/W Rivet Joint
🇺🇸 P-8A Poseidon
🇺🇸 CL650 Artemis
🇬🇧 EUFI FGR.4
🇬🇧 KC2 Voyager
🇱🇺 E-3A Sentry
🇫🇷 E-3F Sentry
🇫🇷 Dassault Rafale
🇫🇷 Beech 350 King Air ALSR
🇮🇹 G550 AEW
🇹🇷 E-7T Peace Eagle
🇹🇷 ATR 72-600 TMPA pic.twitter.com/gKsPB1To8i
— about plane (@about_plane) April 11, 2025
Footage released by the French Joint Staff pertaining to the operation also shows an E-2C Hawkeye and two Rafale Ms being launched from the FNS Charles De Gaulle. The latter, however, were shown in multiple different configurations in the short video, so this might have been file footage and not related to the operation. The video also showed the Rafales receiving fuel from the A330 MRTT and another Rafale configured for buddy refueling.
Images published by the Permanent Joint Headquarters showed the Rivet Joint flying over land, a Typhoon taking off, and a French Air Force Rafale flying over water unarmed, with only three external fuel tanks. Once again, it is unclear if these are file images.
📍Mer Noire | Coopération 🇫🇷🇬🇧
Surveillance d’une zone stratégique pour la sécurité du continent avec un dispositif aérien complet.
➡️ Garantir la liberté de navigation et l’accès aux espaces partagés.
➡️ Préserver la sécurité et de prévenir toute menace. https://t.co/d4risgdCtf pic.twitter.com/Bwtyc1G2qM
— Armée française – Opérations militaires (@EtatMajorFR) April 12, 2025
FNS Charles De Gaulle
The FNS Charles De Gaulle, that was reported sailing into Piraeus in Greece on Apr. 12, 2025, launched its aircraft from over the Mediterranean Sea. The aircraft carrier left Singapore on Mar. 10, according to warship tracker ‘WarshipCam’ on X, and is on the last leg of its Clemenceau 25 deployment, before sailing back to France.
The carrier cannot have entered the Black Sea, since it would have required an approval from Turkey as per the Montreux Convention, which gives it control over the Bosphorus and Dardanelles straits. The features connect the Mediterranean and Black Seas.
