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Newsweek
6 days ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
US Spy Plane Sweeps Russia's Western Flank
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A U.S. spy plane has swept across NATO's northern flank—near major military bases in northwest Russia—flight tracking data shows, marking the latest flight by NATO surveillance aircraft close to Russian soil. A U.S. Air Force (USAF) RC-135V Rivet Joint aircraft took off from a base in eastern England on Tuesday for a roughly 12 hour flight, first traveling north over Norway before nearing Russia's Murmansk region, data from publicly available flight tracking platform FlightRadar24 shows. The aircraft reached the area northeast of the Russian town of Severomorsk before turning back and returning to the U.K. via Finland, the Baltic states that are pressed up against Russia, Poland, Germany and then the Netherlands. It skirts around Russia's exclave of Kaliningrad, a wedge of Russian soil squeezed between Lithuania and Poland, tracking data indicates. Russia's northwestern Murmansk region borders NATO member Finland, and is home to the country's formidable Northern Fleet. The Northern Fleet plays a major role in Russia's nuclear arsenal. An RC-135W Rivet Joint and two F-35 Lightnings fly over The Mall during a flypast to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day in London, England, on May 5, 2025. An RC-135W Rivet Joint and two F-35 Lightnings fly over The Mall during a flypast to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day in London, England, on May 5, has a number of military bases and airfields around the city of Murmansk and nearby Severomorsk, the home of the main Northern Fleet headquarters and a major submarine base. The Olenya airbase, hosting long-range Russian bombers, is north of Severomorsk, and Russia has in recent years modernized its Severomorsk-1 naval airbase. Gadzhiyevo, another major submarine base, sits north of Murmansk and Severomorsk. The U.S. and the U.K. have both operated Rivet Joint aircraft in eastern Europe in recent weeks. A British Royal Air Force (RAF) RC-135 flew an almost identical flight path through Europe up to Murmansk last week. The Boeing RC-135 aircraft hoovers up what is known as signals intelligence, or SIGINT, which can come from a variety of sources, like written messages or data from weapons and radar systems. Iterations of the RC-135 have been in use with the U.S. military for decades. The USAF Rivet Joint, identified on FlightRadar24 by the call sign, "JAKE 17," took off from the U.K. base of Mildenhall at 7 a.m. local time (2 a.m. ET) on Tuesday, and landed back at the same base at just after 7 p.m. U.K. time (2 p.m. ET). The USAF's fleet of RC-135s have been "hard pressed of late with urgent demands for SIGINT collection at U.S.-Mexico border, East Asia, eastern Europe, and the Middle East," Olli Suorsa, an assistant professor in homeland security at the government-owned Abu Dhabi-based Rabdan Academy, previously told Newsweek.
Newsweek
15-07-2025
- Politics
- Newsweek
NATO Spy Planes Make Pincer Move Over Russia
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. American and British reconnaissance aircraft flew from England toward Russia, approaching the country from two sides on the same day, according to flight data. A Newsweek map shows the planes' route amid tensions between NATO and Moscow. On Monday, the Boeing Royal Air Force (RAF) aircraft RC-135W flew from its base in the U.K. and circled off the coast of the Russian city of Murmansk before heading back. It happened the same day as the U.S. Air Force (USAF) aircraft RC-135V left a different U.K. base and circled the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad that borders NATO's eastern flank members, Lithuania and Poland. There is no suggestion that Russian airspace was breached. Why It Matters The Boeing-built aircraft gather signals intelligence and are crewed by more than 30 people, including electronic warfare officers and intelligence operators. The latest sorties come amid growing tensions between Moscow and the bloc following Russian aircraft buzzing NATO airspace and pledges by the U.S. and the alliance to provide more military help for Ukraine to fight Russian President Vladimir Putin's aggression. What To Know Data from Flightradar24, mapped by Newsweek, shows that the RAF RC-135W took off from the RAF base at Waddington, Lincolnshire, England at 8:11 a.m. on Monday. The aircraft headed past Norway, Sweden and Finland before turning southeast toward Russia. Its route took it across the Barents Sea and almost parallel with Murmansk, Russia's Arctic port city, before it returned to the U.K. along the Scandinavian coast and landed at Waddington at 6:38 p.m. Also on Monday, the USAF RC-135V Rivet Joint, identified by the call sign "JAKE17," took off at 7:08 a.m. from Mildenhall, Suffolk, located further south in England. The aircraft went on a seven-hour flight that took it across the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Lithuania before it circled Kaliningrad, the Russian exclave that would be the front line of any hostilities between Moscow and the alliance. This image from May 5 shows an RC-135W Rivet Joint and two F-35 Lightnings flying over The Mall during a flypast on Victory in Europe Day in London. This image from May 5 shows an RC-135W Rivet Joint and two F-35 Lightnings flying over The Mall during a flypast on Victory in Europe Day in days ago, the USAF reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering aircraft skirted around Kaliningrad after it crossed Europe and the three Baltic states. The Rivet Joint usually flies around NATO's eastern flank and also on the edge of the Black Sea near Russian-controlled Crimea, which Moscow seized from Ukraine in 2014. Olli Suorsa, an assistant professor in homeland security at the Rabdan Academy in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, previously told Newsweek that the USAF's fleet of RC-135s were "hard pressed of late" because of demands for signals intelligence collection at the U.S.-Mexico border, East Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The U.K.'s RAF operates its own Rivet Joint fleet, often sending its reconnaissance aircraft around Kaliningrad and the broader eastern flank of NATO. At the end of last month, the aircraft traveled to and from the Black Sea after circling Kaliningrad. What People Are Saying User @MeNMyRC1, a security analyst, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, next to the map of the RAF RC-135W: "All the way up into the Barents Sea. This area used to get a lot more attention when the Soviet Union had a Navy and Air Force." What Happens Next NATO continues to conduct regular aerial surveillance of Russia's western border regions, and Russia is likely to continue facing accusations that it is buzzing alliance airspace as part of hybrid measures that add to security concerns for the region known as the "NATO lake."
