U.S. Surveillance Plane Provided Targeting Data To Ukraine Before Russian Ship Hit

REVEALED: US maritime surveillance plane was over Black Sea minutes before Russian flagship Moskva was ‘hit by Ukrainian missiles’

By DARREN BOYLE FOR MAILONLINE

The US Navy used its new marine surveillance aircraft to provide accurate targeting data to Ukrainian forces to sink the Russian Black Sea flag ship Moskva on April 13. 

Ukraine claimed it fired two Neptun missiles at the Russian warship which was patrolling south of Odesa. 

Russia initially claimed the vessel, which had more than 500 crew on board had blown up after a fire onboard. 

Later, the Kremlin was forced to admit the vessel - named in honour of the Russian capital - had been taken out by hostile action. 

The US Navy deployed one of its Boeing Poseidon P-8 maritime surveillance aircraft on the Black Sea coast over Romania in the hours before the Ukrainian attack on the Moskva

According to The Times, a US marine surveillance P-8 Poseidon aircraft, was tracking Moskva in the hours before it was attacked before supplying its location to the Ukrainian military. 

The Boeing-made aircraft is based upon the Boeing 737-800 jet - which is widely used by airlines such as Ryanair. 

However, instead of passengers, the Poseidon is packed with state-of-the-art surveillance equipment which can track surface vessels and submarines at ranges of more than 100 miles. 

According to The Times, the P-8 took off from Italy and took up station on the Romanian Black Sea coast where it attempted to locate the position of the Russian Black Sea fleet. 

Since the invasion of Ukraine, a range of NATO surveillance platforms and drones have been monitoring Russian movements from the Polish coast, along the Ukrainian border and down to the Black Sea.