A British RC-135 ‘Rivet Joint’, a dedicated electronic surveillance aircraft, has again been deployed to conduct surveillance of Russian forces in occupied Ukraine.

The UK has been conducting these flights to gather intelligence about Russian forces in the area.

The RC-135W Rivet Joint and its sensors are designed to undertake ‘signals intelligence’ missions. In other words, they ‘soak up’ electronic emissions from communications, radars and other systems.

As we need to post this each time, here’s the usual disclaimer. This isn’t a new occurrence. It is pretty routine. The UK has long been gathering intelligence about Russian forces since long before the invasion of Ukraine, and it should be noted that these flights are designed to be visible so that the public and Russia know they’re happening. If it were a secret, I would not know. Also, for those remarking, ‘this isn’t new’, that’s right, but people only know this often happens because it is reported often.

British surveillance aircraft being over the area isn’t unusual, but we are seeing a significant increase in the frequency of the flights over the last few months for obvious reasons.

What does the RC-135W do?

According to the Royal Air Force website, the RC-135W Rivet Joint is a dedicated electronic surveillance aircraft that can be employed in all theatres on strategic and tactical missions. Its sensors ‘soak up’ electronic emissions from communications, radar and other systems.

“RC-135W Rivet Joint employs multidiscipline Weapons System Officer (WSO) and Weapons System Operator (WSOp) specialists whose mission is to survey elements of the electromagnetic spectrum in order to derive intelligence for commanders.”

The Royal Air Force say that Rivet Joint has been deployed extensively for Operation Shader and on other operational taskings. It had been formally named Airseeker, but is almost universally known in service as the RC-135W Rivet Joint.

The UK operates three of these aircraft.

Tom Dunlop
Tom Dunlop
Tom has spent the last 13 years working in the defence industry, specifically military and commercial shipbuilding. His work has taken him around Europe and the Far East, he is currently based in Scotland.

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29 COMMENTS

  1. Thanks to George and the team for 2022 and look forward to more this year and of course the comments by the readers

    • Please allow me to add to the thanks. We may sometimes get carried away with our opinions but imagine not having the freedom to write about our troubled world. So many can’t speak nor write for fear of reprisals, long live ukdj.

  4. Is it fair to say that this and other assistance (provided by the UK and the rest of free world) prior to and during the conflict may well have helped the Ukrainians turn the tide on what could heve been a completely different outcome? .

    • Indeed it is because an Artillery battle requires situational awareness and forward observation to plan and target fire. You can only deliver the potential of HIMARS when you know where the build up of enemy forces and material are. So EW and ISTAR are essential. Being able to estimate the value of targets and make best use of limited ammunition is far better than the Soviet doctrine of blast it all to bits because we can. No need for logistics stress and presenting a target to the enemy, nor war crime of indiscriminate civilian and military targets.
      UAV for getting in close for targetting and even dropped munitions has been effective, but without the battlefield wide situational awareness you could waste a lot of opportunities…

  5. Great aircraft. I do wonder if there is much demand for 24 hour coverage of this kind of intel hoovering?
    Maybe it’s replacement will be unmanned long endurance aircraft that can communicate all the data to a base. It would still need all the kit on board and the crews would have to be able to operate their their work station like they were onboard.

    • “Maybe it’s replacement will be unmanned long endurance aircraft that can communicate all the data to a base.”
      Check out callsign ‘Forte 11’ on FlightRadar24. That’s a USAF Global Hawk, out of Sigonella. Quite often appears to be spending 8 hours or more on station, going back and forth, from 55,000ft.

  7. Although in Grinch mode, may I wish you all the best and thank you for Heads Ups appreciation of issues.

    Peaceful New Year.

  10. These are great assets and I hope that they deliver some lessons we don’t forget about procurement.
    Unlike attempts to turn Nimrod into an AEW aircraft (£2.75 billion in 2022 prices) and then attempts to turn 50 year old Nimrod’s into new MPA’s (£4.8 billion in 2022 prices), we bought an existing asset with proven technology which was built in larger numbers than we required thus pushing down the unit costs.
    We need to stop treating niche defence requirements as job creation scheme’s, buy proven technology and concentrate our defence R&D and manufacturing investment on core capabilities that we do well.

  13. The UK is one of only a few nations that can field this type of aircraft. The Rivet Joint replaced Nimrods recently.

  14. I found it on Flight Radar 24 over the Black Sea south of Crimea, with a “little friend” behind it… a Eurofighter Typhoon. Heading back to Waddington now.

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