A United States spy plane was spotted flying over the Kaliningrad region, a Russian enclave between Poland and Lithuania, amid rising tensions between Washington and Moscow.
The aircraft, identified as RC-135U “Combat Sent”, is used for strategic intelligence gathering and is capable of detecting and analyzing signals from foreign military radars. The flight departed from RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom and lasted just over seven hours, according to records from FlightRadar24.
The purpose of the mission, conducted on October 7, was not confirmed, but such operations are frequently associated with surveillance and monitoring of military activities. The same aircraft had already conducted a similar flight earlier in the month, while drones were observed over Germany during the same period, raising speculation about increased Western intelligence activity in the region.
The incident occurs amid rising tensions in European airspace. In recent weeks, Russian fighters and drones have been accused of violating the airspace of NATO countries such as Estonia, Poland, and Romania. The alliance labeled these actions as “irresponsible” and emphasized that any attack on one of its members would be treated as a collective aggression under Article 5 of the treaty. Meanwhile, the debate over Ukraine’s NATO membership remains stalled due to the ongoing war.
Source: Unilad | Photo: X @RT_com | This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team
US Air Forces’ electronic recon aircraft RC-135U circles near Russia’s Kaliningrad
After the short ‘spy’ flight, it returned to UK’s RAF Mildenhall air base pic.twitter.com/A9OmVaMAHw
— RT (@RT_com) October 7, 2025
