Fresh surveillance mission: NATO aircraft detected near Russia’s Kaliningrad

A Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II surveillance and targeting aircraft has been operating near Russia’s Kaliningrad region, a source in European Union air traffic services told TASS.

“About an hour and a half ago, a NATO reconnaissance aircraft took off from the Romanian city of Constanța, where it has been based in recent months, and is currently flying near the Kaliningrad region at an altitude of just over 10 kilometres,” the source said.

The aircraft initially flew along the border between the Russian exclave and Poland before proceeding along the eastern and northern boundaries of the Kaliningrad region, he added.

The aircraft is using Polish and Lithuanian airspace. The source noted that the last time a Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II was observed near Kaliningrad was on July 7 and 8. During parts of those missions, it was accompanied by a British Royal Air Force Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic surveillance aircraft that had flown in from RAF Waddington. Their route passed through Lithuanian and Polish airspace, as well as areas over international waters of the Baltic Sea.

The source stressed that air traffic controllers have recorded nearly a dozen similar Bombardier Challenger 650 Artemis II flights near the Kaliningrad region over the past several months.

The aircraft has also conducted north-south patrols through the airspace of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, turning around near the Gulf of Finland coast without approaching the border areas of Russia or Belarus.

In addition, the aircraft regularly operates over international waters of the Black Sea, flying east-west patrol routes without entering the airspace of any coastal state.

By Jeyhun Aghazada