U.S. Air Force Nuke Sniffing Plane Europe missions in August

Below article dates from August 5

Curious Mission Flown Over The Baltic Sea

The U.S. Air Force's lone WC-135W Constant Phoenix "nuke sniffer" aircraft flew an unusual mission over the Baltic Sea today. This plane is typically used to collect air samples to monitor for spikes in radiation levels in the atmosphere, but can also be employed after nuclear weapon tests and atomic accidents to help glean more information about those events and track the potential spread of dangerous radioactive material.

Several websites, reddits and tweets reporting that the same plane flew several missions over Europe and the Mediterranean sea and was last seen on August 16.
All of the sources that I found are in European languages, but none in English.

except this tweet
twitter.com...

Roughly translated:

Three European missions in 40 years The purpose of these various missions remains a mystery. The plane is believed to be tracking Russian activities in the region. The Kremlin is suspected of experimenting with a new generation of nuclear weapons on the shores of the White Sea.

However, the missions over the western Mediterranean raise more questions. There is no nuclear arsenal in this region.
The presence of a Constant Phoenix in Europe remains an event in itself. This type of aircraft had only been deployed – officially – twice before over Europe: at the time of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 and during a peak in radioactivity observed in several European countries in February 2017.

No big media is reporting on this atm

The reason I'm posting this is because 1. I'm curious to know what is going on, because every other time this plane was over Europe it had good reason to be there, which raises the question if there is something going on in W-Europe that is being buried under all the Afghanistan news.

and 2. to see if anyone here on ATS heard more about it or knows where to go for more info.

I'm joking so let's take it not to be serious. I think the plane is monitoring the insanity going on in that part of the world.

a reply to: musicismagic

Besides fires, floods and heat, there is not much going on in Europe (that we know off....)

www.thedrive.com...

I found this hth

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Big media almost never reports on military aircraft movements, so there's nothing new there. Constant Phoenix detects any kind of nuclear release. Russia is developing a nuclear powered torpedo, and has flown several test flights of a nuclear powered cruise missile. That leaves isotopes that can be detected if there was a recent flight, and Constant Phoenix would detect them. There was also an ongoing release of iodine in the region last year.

It's been converted.

It is now used to sniff covid

originally posted by: astra001uk
www.thedrive.com...

I found this hth

yes, that is the one about the flight over the Baltic region on Aug 5th.
There were several others flights going from Sweden to Italy

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: KindraLabelle2

There was also an ongoing release of iodine in the region last year.

Last year?
Or are you talking about the traces they found in 2017?

a reply to: musicismagic

"The Plane", and crew, has been ordered to desperately try to find a distraction away from Asskrackistan! Desperately!

Their mission is to find something, ANYTHING, which will distract from one of the greatest political and military failures in recent American history!!

Desperately!

ETA - Okay, we're looking for bad guys in Syria...so what, big whoop! Bad guys in Asskrackistan are holding thousands of American "citizens" hotstage at gunpoint, murdering and raping women and basically doing whatever the hell they want. Should we pay attention to that? Nooooooooo, look over here, a shiny object! Pay no matter to those stupid people, whom we can't figure out how to extract...BECAUSE OF THE TALIBAN...no, just pay attention to this nuclear trace over here and this captured cell phone call from Syria.

I swear, people in this country are idiots anymore! COMPLETE IDIOTS!

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

No, I'm talking about the trace amounts of iodine that were detected by multiple stations in Europe in June of last year.

They might be looking for a terrorist nuke, or a rogue nuke.

a reply to: butcherguy

The timing and location points to a Russian test of some kind. There would be other assets involved if they were actively looking for something.

originally posted by: butcherguy
They might be looking for a terrorist nuke, or a rogue nuke.

Is that a Broken Arrow?

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: butcherguy

The timing and location points to a Russian test of some kind. There would be other assets involved if they were actively looking for something.

That's what is assumed, but it doesn't explain the flights going from Sweden, over France to Italy and back. Some mention that it was accompanied by British observation planes and a Swedish radar plane.
But I honestly have no idea what those are used for.

What kind of 'other assets' would be involved in case they were looking for something else than Russian activity?

originally posted by: jhn7537

originally posted by: butcherguy
They might be looking for a terrorist nuke, or a rogue nuke.

Is that a Broken Arrow?

Not necessarily.
Could be a weapon assembled by a terrorist organization or one that they purchased on the black market, or even a dirty bomb.

a reply to: KindraLabelle2

Yes, it does. The isotopes don't just stay in the test area. When you're on a sniffing mission you sniff as large an area as you can around the area you're interested in, depending on what the wind is doing. During the French nuclear tests in the South Pacific, they were flying U-2s nowhere near the test area, and they were coming back with isotopes stuck to the airframe.

They'd have ISR assets with specialized sensors flying, not just Constant Phoenix. If there were actually RAF aircraft, they'd be Rivet Joint. They'd be able to detect radio signals and locate the test area. A radar aircraft would be able to see the missile flight and locate the exact area the test occurred. Both of those could be used to locate something, but they're still not the right assets for it. You'd have a U-2, or MQ-4 among others in the area.

originally posted by: jhn7537

originally posted by: butcherguy
They might be looking for a terrorist nuke, or a rogue nuke.

Is that a Broken Arrow?

You watch too many Travolta movies .

originally posted by: butcherguy
They might be looking for a terrorist nuke, or a rogue nuke.

Probably the Russian “doomsday” torpedo:

www.forbes.com...

a reply to: 1947boomer

At a guess, I'm betting it was the cruise missile. There would be more to collect from that than from the torpedo.

a reply to: Zaphod58

New satellite images show Russia may be preparing to test nuclear powered 'Skyfall' missile
Updated 8:22 PM ET, Wed August 18, 2021
www.cnn.com...

a bit further away in the Arctic Circle... but still interesting