A U.S. Air Force RC-135W Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft today appeared to fly a circle around the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
RC-135W Rivet Joint is a dedicated electronic surveillance aircraft with advanced sensors to "soak up" electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems.
According to the radar data from flightradar24 and FlightAware, USAF Boeing RC-135W (reg. 62-4130 – callsign JAKE11) took off from RAF Mildenhall, 3, flew a circle around the Russian territory over Lithuania and the Baltic Sea and landed in Mildenhall station after a 7-hour flight.
The aircraft also circled over Poland along the border with Belarus.
Kaliningrad is a small Russian exclave on the Baltic Sea sandwiched between European Union and NATO members Lithuania and Poland. It was annexed from Germany in 1945.
