https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidax.../#260d00ac3608

On Aug. 28, six U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base in North
Dakota flew over all 30 NATO countries in a single day.

Yes, even Canada.

This theatrical display of air power wasn’t just for show. It apparently also
was the bait in a carefully-planned intelligence-gathering operation targeting
Russian air-defenses around the Black Sea.

The Air Force on Aug. 22 flew six B-52s from Minot to the Royal Air Force base
at Fairford. The bombers flew over the Arctic—where the Russian navy recently
staged a mock amphibious landing—around the same time a rarely-seen U.S. Navy
submarine, USS Seawolf, also passed under the North Pole ice.

Six days later four of the bombers at Fairford, plus two still in the United
States, took off in the morning and fanned out across Canada and Europe before
returning to base in the afternoon.

They flew higher than 20,000 feet at top speeds exceeding 400 miles per hour.

Of the United Kingdom-based B-52s, one flew over NATO’s Nordic members. Another
headed across the Baltic region. A third flew west to cross over Portugal and
Spain. A dizzying array of alliance fighters—British Typhoons, French Mirage
2000s, Belgian F-16s, Czech Gripens, Romanian and Croatian MiG-21s, Bulgarian
MiG-29s, Italian F-35s—joined up with the bombers.

The fourth B-52, call-sign “NATO01,” had the most interesting flight path.
NATO01, a B-52H built in 1961, headed for the Black Sea, which since the Russian
invasion of Ukraine in 2014 steadily has become more dangerous. Russian warships
and fighters crisscross the sea. Russian air-defense systems ring it.

Understanding those Russian defenses is top job of NATO intelligence. Which
apparently is why, when NATO01 flew through international air space over the
Black Sea, two U.S. Air Force RC-135V/W Rivet Joints were nearby.

The four-engine RC-135V/Ws are electronic-intelligence systems. Using sensitive
receivers, they listen for, and help to catalogue, enemy radars and other
sensors. The U.S. Air Force has just 17 RC-135V/Ws. Committing two of them to a
single mission ... is a big deal.

Russian forces went on alert as NATO01 passed through. Two armed Su-27 fighters
flew so close to the B-52 that their afterburners rocked the eight-engine
bomber.

“Actions like these increase the potential for midair collisions, are
unnecessary and inconsistent with good airmanship and international flight
rules,” said Gen. Jeff Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa
commander.

But the same Russian response—not only fighter-intercepts but sea- and
ground-base air-defense efforts—likely handed the RC-135V/Ws lots of interesting
data.




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