RC-135 Rivet Joint
ICAO R135The signals intelligence aircraft whose orbits make the news. Live RC-135 Rivet Joint positions.
Flying right now
Live · 30s
No RC-135 Rivet Joint is transmitting ADS-B at the moment.
Military aircraft are not obliged to broadcast, so this happens regularly. The count refreshes every thirty seconds.
Airframe
- Manufacturer
- Boeing
- Role
- Signals intelligence
- Class
- L4J — Landplane, 4 jet engines
- Crew
- Over 30
- First flight
- 1962
- In service
- 1964
Operators airborne
Nothing of this type is up right now.
About the RC-135 Rivet Joint
The RC-135 listens. Built on the same 707-derived airframe as the KC-135, it carries more than thirty people whose job is to intercept, locate and analyse electronic emissions — radar, radio, data links — from whatever is transmitting below and around it.
It is one of the most consistently tracked military aircraft in the world, because it transmits ADS-B and flies long, obvious orbits along politically sensitive edges: the Black Sea, the Baltic, the eastern Mediterranean, the Korean peninsula. Journalists and analysts follow those tracks routinely.
The United Kingdom operates three as the Airseeker, flown jointly with the US Air Force. Related variants under the same designator include the WC-135 nuclear sampling aircraft and the OC-135 Open Skies airframe.
Callsign prefixes
- JAKE
- A long-standing Rivet Joint block
- HOMER
- Another recurring RC-135 callsign
- RRR
- Ascot — Royal Air Force Airseeker
How to recognise it
- —A KC-135 airframe with a distinctive elongated, thickened nose radome.
- —Cheek fairings along the forward fuselage housing antenna arrays, and a forest of blade aerials underneath.
- —On the feed: long straight legs or racetracks parallel to a border or coastline, for many hours.
Common questions
+ Why does a spy plane transmit its position?
Because it is not hiding. These flights are deliberately conducted in international airspace and their visibility is part of the point — it is a legal, observed activity, and transmitting makes the aircraft safer around civil traffic.
+ What is the difference between the RC-135 and the KC-135?
The airframe is closely related; the mission is not. The KC-135 is a tanker, the RC-135 a signals intelligence aircraft with no refuelling capability and a very different nose.
+ What is Airseeker?
The Royal Air Force name for its three RC-135W aircraft, operated jointly with the US Air Force from RAF Waddington.