A British RC-135 Rivet Joint aircraft has been monitoring Russian forces around Crimea.
This isn’t the first deployment, this has been ongoing for a number of weeks now.
Translated, the below tweet says:
“0840 UTC: Russian Black Sea coast under close western surveillance: 1 RC135 + 1 USAF Global Hawk + 1 RC135 from the Royal Air Force.”
0840 UTC : les côtes russes de la mer Noire sous étroite surveillance occidentale : 1 RC135 + 1 Global Hawk de l'USAF + 1 RC135 de la Royal Air Force #Crimea #BlackSea #uav #drone #GlobalHawk #SIGINT #ROEM #ADSB #AvGeek via @flightradar24 pic.twitter.com/hJHpHcNYoM
— Cristina Samaliot (@c_samaliot) April 29, 2021
Other aircraft, including an American RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone are also present in the area.
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.
I’m saying nothing.😎
well yes, true but, it was a saying and I don’t care either way…… Doesn’t matter what anyone “Writes” on here anyway, there will always be a stupid comment or 1000. BTW, I enjoy all your post’s on here, unlike the idiots who think they own the site.
Not sure why since they won’t do anything just like the last time Biden was VP.
Putin just pulled his forces back after being warned by the UK and US or serious consequences should another invasion go ahead, one NATO has had 7 years to prepare for.
Trump’s 2nd personal lawyer (the first one Michael Cohen got thrown in jail years ago) Giuliani got his apartment raided by the FBI yesterday, looking for evidence that Giuliani was improperly trying to influence US policy towards Ukraine, at the behest of Russian Intelligence Operatives.
Whose side are you on Dan???
Change the bloody record mate! We get it, you don’t like Biden. You’re sounding like a one-trick pony.
Been watching the RAF RJs on FlightRadar24. Interesting… wonder if the Russians have been intercepting them?
NOOOOOOO ! Do you read the Daily Star mate ? 😂
So Captain….you’re back. Wondered if you’d noticed that votes were dropped by the boss. 😆
I did earlier…… It was a backward step that handed the site trolls the upper hand, as mentioned loosely by quite a few others here….. and as seen in the downvote feature that still exists here…… personally, I’m not real….. just a silly thing who looks in and post’s silly stuff….. even the odd melt down and honest thing about Rape, death and suffering in a theatre of conflict…. none of my experiences, burns, losses of mates or opinions matter here one little bit….. so that’s why I’m happy to be here after the vote system was again, removed. It… Read more »
My definition of a site troll…. is someone who just turns up, adds nothing to the discussion apart from some copy and paste or condescending repost ………so to me, that’s Herodotus and Nigel Collins mostly. but hey ho, what do I know mate, after all, It’s their site and everyone else is just Insidious. Not that being racist is !
Same here, plenty of squiggly lines on the map over Ukraine with RAF and USAF jets going over.
But not heard of any Russian intercepts even via the #Donbass on Twitter
Very useful assets, very busy as always.
Used to watch the Nimrod R1’s going out of Wyton back in the day. Remember wondering – where you off to mate. Sneaky beaky. Enough said.