A United Kingdom spy plane carried out a landmark flight along the western border of Russia earlier this month, which saw it complete a full transit of NATO’s eastern flank.
Newsweek‘s map, displaying Coordinated Universal Time, or UTC, traces the flight of a Royal Air Force RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft, also known as Rivet Joint, on October 11 as it took off from the southernmost point of Greece on a flight to the northern tip of Finland.
The aircraft was “the first to complete a surveillance journey from NATO‘s most southerly point in the Mediterranean to the Barents Sea in the high north,” the RAF said on October 15, adding that the flight was a noteworthy achievement and a landmark moment.
The RC-135W, developed by the United States, can survey the electromagnetic spectrum by “soaking up” electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems for intelligence collection. The Royal Air Force received three aircraft from 2013 to 2017.
The sortie came as the Russia-Ukraine war continues to threaten the security and stability of NATO’s eastern flank. Meanwhile, increasing numbers of Russian military aircraft are being intercepted by allied air forces over the Baltic Sea, Newsweek previously revealed.
Data captured by the aircraft tracking service Flightradar24 showed the British Rivet Joint took off from Chania Airport near Souda Bay in Greece. It transited the airspace of Bulgaria and flew over the Black Sea off the coast of Romania and southwest of Ukraine.
The spy plane continued its northward flight and bypassed Ukrainian airspace. It executed an aerial refueling over Poland with a KC-135T tanker aircraft sent by the U.S. Air Force.
The U.S. Air Force said the Rivet Joint “supports the United Kingdom’s national defense as well as NATO operations by providing real-time intelligence to military commanders and allied forces.” The KC-135T was sent from Mildenhall air base in eastern England.
The Rivet Joint then flew over the Baltic states of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which border Belarus and the Russian mainland to the east, as well as Kaliningrad to the west, a Russian territory that is separate from the rest of the country and is surrounded by Lithuania and Poland.
After crossing the Gulf of Finland, the British spy plane flew to the north along the border between Finland, which joined NATO in 2023, and Russia. It finally reached the Barents Sea, a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean, off the northernmost coast of Norway.
The Barents Sea is considered an operating area for the Russian military, including its air force and navy. The Russian northwestern region of Murmansk, which borders Finland and Norway to the west, is home to several bases and shipyards for the country’s Northern Fleet.
The Rivet Joint aircraft returned to its home at Waddington air base in eastern England, following a southbound transit over Norway and the North Sea. The spy flight lasted for 12 hours.
Rivet Joint aircraft routinely fly along the borders of NATO member states, the RAF said.
“Completing it in one sortie demonstrates a projection of capability that puts the UK front and center in the defense of NATO airspace alongside our U.S. partners,” it said.
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