By Tim Ripley
Features
Tim Ripley examines the secretive world of RAF and USAF spy flights around Russia’s western borders.
USAF/A1C Jonathan Light
VKS
EARLY ON a cold February morning, one of the Royal Air Force’s two Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence (ELINT) aircraft lifted off from its home base of RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire and headed out over the North Sea. It topped up the fuel tanks from a US Air Force Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker soon after take-off and then headed east.