A source in the European Union's air traffic control services reported that a NATO Boeing E-3A Sentry early warning and control aircraft was conducting a flight in the Romanian Black Sea coast region.
A source told TASS: "The NATO aircraft, registered in Luxembourg, arrived in Romania from its deployment base in Šiauliai, Lithuania, and is making a circular flight off the Black Sea coast," noting that the flight path passes close to the Romanian-Ukrainian border.
The source stated that the equipment of the Boeing E-3A Sentry, considered one of the most advanced aerial reconnaissance platforms in the world, allows it to detect and identify aerial targets at a range of up to 400 kilometers. The aircraft operates at an altitude of approximately 9.5 kilometers, outside of designated civilian flight paths.
This flight comes amid escalating NATO intelligence activity in the Black Sea region in recent days. A source told TASS the previous day that a NATO Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II reconnaissance and targeting aircraft had flown over the neutral waters of the Black Sea, flying several times from west to east over the waterway without entering the airspace of any country.
These aerial activities, described as "routine and deliberate," underscore the alliance's continued presence in the region to monitor Russian military activity and enhance situational awareness on NATO's eastern flank. These movements come at a time of heightened tensions in the region, with Russia repeatedly warning against increased NATO intelligence activities near its western borders.
