A US Air Force spy jet has been spotted circling Russia’s western exclave of Kaliningrad, which borders Poland, as tensions soar between NATO and Moscow.
Flight tracking data appears to show an American RC-135U aircraft taking off from the UK early on Tuesday, flying over the Baltic states before looping around Kaliningrad during a 7-hour round trip.
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This type of aircraft is specifically designed to collect electronic intelligence on enemy radar and communications systems, and is fitted for aerial refuelling, effectively giving it unlimited range.
Kaliningrad, a small exclave on the Baltic Sea, holds strategic military significance for Moscow and has been at the center of heightened geopolitical tensions since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania, two NATO member states, th region is home to Russia’s Baltic Fleet and advanced missile systems. Ongoing airspace disruption caused by GPS jamming has also been traced to a secret base in the area.
Russia’s own reconnaissance
The apparent US spy mission comes after a recent uptick in Russia-linked hybrid warfare incidents across European NATO states, many involving suspicious drone activity and airspace breaches.
Dozens of flights were diverted or cancelled last Friday at Munich Airport, Germany’s second largest, leaving more than 10,000 passengers stranded following sightings of rogue drones.
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he believed Russia was behind many of the drones, though he added that none were armed and appeared to be conducting reconnaissance flights.
In September, over 20 Russian drones breached Poland’s airspace in an unprecedented occurrence that prompted Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk to warn that the incident was “the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II.”
Where did the plane come from?
The US intelligence aircraft spotted circling Kaliningrad took off from the UK on Tuesday morning.
It left Mildenhall, a Royal Air Force station in Suffolk, southeast England, at 8:32 am CET (0632 UTC), headed to the Baltic states and Kaliningrad, before returning to Britain at 3:36 pm CET (1336 UTC).
While the purpose of Tuesday’s mission has not been officially confirmed, FlightRadar24 reported the same aircraft—callsign JAKE37—had also circled Kaliningrad last Thursday, coinciding with the drone incursions that disrupted Munich Airport.
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