A US Air Force Boeing RC-135V Rivet Joint reconnaissance aircraft with the callsign JAKE17 was observed operating near Russia’s Kaliningrad region, according to publicly available data from the Flightradar tracking service.
The aircraft, a long-range signal intelligence platform, departed from NATO's Mildenhall Air Base in the United Kingdom and flew close to Russia’s westernmost exclave, a strategic area heavily monitored by both NATO and Russian forces.
Earlier on February 28, the same model — the RC-135V Rivet Joint — had been spotted over the Black Sea. Just hours after that mission, the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU) attempted a drone attack on the Russkaya compressor station in Russia’s Krasnodar region, a key facility for natural gas transport.
Additionally, a Boeing RC-135W reconnaissance aircraft from the US Air Force recently conducted a surveillance flight in Finnish airspace near the Russian border, further highlighting NATO’s increased aerial reconnaissance activity along Russia’s periphery.
These missions are seen as part of the broader intelligence-gathering efforts amid ongoing geopolitical and military tensions between Russia and Western powers.
