A Russian jet was scrambled to intercept an RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint spy plane and its two Typhoon fighter escorts flying over the Black Sea close to the Crimean peninsula.

According to the Russian defence ministry, the Su-27 fighter was launched on Friday to prevent the RAF fighters from approaching the Russian border.

“As the Russian fighter approached, foreign military aircraft made a turn from the state border of the Russian Federation,” the ministry said in a statement.

“There was no violation of the state border of the Russian Federation,” it added.

The interception was the second such incident within a week.

‘Usually ignore Russian jets’

On Wednesday, a Su-27 fighter jet was mobilised to escort another formation of two British Typhoon fighter jets and an RC-135 Rivet Joint away from the Russian border.

British surveillance aircraft flights over the Black Sea are relatively common and often pass without incident.

“The aircraft usually ignore Russian jets and complete their deployment with both sides parting without any sort of incident,” said George Allison, founder of the UK Defence Journal.

In September 2022, a Russian jet fired a missile “in the vicinity” of an unarmed RAF RC-135W Rivet Joint that was on a routine patrol.

Russia put the engagement down to a “technical malfunction”, but the incident led to the RAF sending fighter escorts to accompany Rivet Joint patrols.

The RC-135W Rivet Joint is a surveillance plane that uses sensors to soak up electronic information that can then be forwarded to commanders.

It is unarmed and has a crew of around 30, including pilots, a navigator, intelligence analysts and linguists.