NATO Spy Planes Make Pincer Move Over Russia

Newsweek

15-07-2025

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
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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 London.Only 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."