Kaliningrad in the spotllight today!! Did not have the time to unpack NATO ISR into a timeline earlier. Apologies. Timeline/plots in this 🧵
BRIO-fencing. Both privately owned sister ISR platforms are leased by LASAI to the 🇺🇸. The newer BRIO66 departed Latvia 05:50 UTC, RTB 13:30 UTC, tasked with northern KGD and Baltic border. BRIO68 departed Constanta 09:20 UTC, RTB 15:55, along the eastern bloc border and N KGD
🇸🇪 AEW Saab 340 C604 departed Ronneby 11:15 UTC, assumed a defensive station between KGD and Sweden over the Baltic sea, returning to Malmen 15:15 UTC
JSTARS C3 🇺🇸 platform REDEYE6 departed Mildenhall 09:35 UTC, RTB 19:15. After crossing the Suwalki gap, it took a reciprocal heading to settle into two orbits on the southgern KGD border.
Two Rivet Joint RC-135, 🇺🇸 JAKE11 and 🇬🇧 RAF RRR7208, and the 🇮🇹 G5 AEW/SIGINT IAM1945 all departed within 90 minutes of each other.
RRR7208 departed Crete 10:10 UTC, RTB 18:55 UTC, tasked to S. KGD and Belarus. IAM1945 departed Rome 10:20 UTC, changed c/s to PERSE41 in NATO command took station south of REDEYE, RTB 17:15. JAKE11 departed Mildenhall 11:35 UTC, RTB 18:44 UTC, hammering KGD from the west.
An unknown 🇩🇪 airframe, c/s HUNTER, was spotted at 13:15 UTC over the Baltic just west of KGD. On station at 200-350 kts, 6775 feet, it patrolled until 16:00 before returning to Germany at 17:25 UTC.
No conjecture or analysis. Simply unwrapping the data.
A long thread about the two F-16's ferried from Tuscon to Rzeszow, and what the rest of Ukraine's Antonov 124 fleet was doing at the end of last month. The airframe in this picture is #50801B, the "hero" aircraft. Full information about the fleet's activities in this 🧵👇 1/18
The Ukranian An-124 fleet was saved from the same fate as Mryia. Most were out of the country when the invasion started, and were squirreled away for a few months before returning to duty and helping with the war effort. The fleet is four strong. All dates are based on GMT 2/18
For simplicity, they are A, B (our hero flight), C and D. Each An-124 has a roll on/off rear platform, as well as a hinged nose, allowing very large cargo space (more than a C5A). The airframe can be lowered on its landing gear as well to facilitate loading and unloading. 3/18
It was an active morning along the Romanian/Ukraine border and Black Sea. This 🧵discusses the activity on this mission. Of ads-b visible aircraft was an Artemis, two RC-135s, a P-8, three AAR, and a mystery French fighter in the Black Sea. Details 👇visualization. 1/6
A closer visualization of the activities around the Delta Danube and Romanian coastline. 2/6
AAR assets in the region:
A332 #3B756A/FAF4091, early departure from France
KC-135 #AE058B, early departure from Poland to track with JAKE17
UK A332 #43C6F3/RRR9954+KAYAK31
ISTAR:
US RC-135 #AE01C9/JAKE 17
US Artemis #A60693/BRIO68
RAF RC-135 #43C39C/RRR7218
US P-8 #AE6851
Mysterious French Fighter:
#3B7582/FAF
Either two spoofed pings, or this was the escort for the Black Sea incursion. It was only seen twice on ADS-B, starting in central BS 3/6
JSLINT "While I was sleeping" version. This will be a detailed thread based on the last 24-hour observable ISR traffic. Here is the master map, broken down in this thread. This is my punishment for actually getting sleep. #OSINT#flightpaths
Before I slept, HOMER21 and BRIO68 were traversing the southern border corridor. HOMER may have been diverted to Constanta around 06:00Z when a Typhoon (likely QFR) sortied into that area. Its ISR 'racetrack' is shortened. As BRIO was already on task, this is unusual.
At some point, RAVEN17, A Dassault Falcon with ECM (jamming) capability availed itself to the southern corridor. It did not show up on FR24, just ads-bx. Speculation: its jamming capacity obscures its actual path, so while ECM is on the ability to triangulate location suffers.
ISR resources. Does not include Lithuanian YANK01, YANK02 (standard paths), BRIO68 (standard southern ISR corridor), the P3 AA33 ISR path, or the P8. Please refer to earlier posts for info. Ads-b reception gaps in SE Romania are primary cause of inaccurate maps.
Transport routes. Of note was the Polish convoy to Latvia. Please refer to earlier posts for info. Ads-b reception gaps in SE Romania are primary cause of inaccurate maps in that region.
This yank is hoping to turn in early and be up as dawn breaks in Eastern Europe. Expecting a busy morning after a relatively quiet day in the air. Now, if my neighbors would cooperate... anyone got a spare Neptune? Todays maps in thread; all are last-leg only. #OSINT#flightpaths
AAR, last leg only. Note flights along the southern Moldova/Romanian border are in an area with limited open-source ads-b reception, so AAR paths in that region tend to obscure.
Cargo/Transports, last leg only. Note flights along the southern Moldova/Romanian border are in an area with limited open-source ads-b reception, so AAR paths in that region tend to obscure.