TASS: British reconnaissance aircraft spotted near Russia’s Kaliningrad

A Boeing RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic surveillance aircraft of the British Royal Air Force has been operating near Russia's Kaliningrad exclave, according to a TASS source in EU air traffic control services.

“The aircraft is circling over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea in close proximity to Russia’s air border from the Kaliningrad region side,” the source said. The intelligence-gathering aircraft has been flying a circular route at an altitude of over 10 kilometres for more than an hour and a half, also using Lithuanian airspace, where it turns near Klaipėda.

The source noted that such flights of the RC-135W are relatively rare in this area, although the aircraft is more frequently observed over the Black Sea, where it operates along east–west routes over international waters without entering any country’s airspace.

By Jeyhun Aghazada