A U.S Air Force E-8C Joint Stars reconnaissance plane has been spotted off the coast of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
The publication Lenta.ru reported Monday that the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System aircraft, with the tail number 93-1097, was spotted during a routine training flight near main Russian Naval in Baltiysk, Kaliningrad.
The plane took off from a Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and for several hours was over the international waters of the Baltic.
According to the current information, in September, the U.S. Air Force has deployed an E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS) aircraft to Germany to demonstrates U.S. commitment to allies and partners in the region.
The JSTARS is an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with situational awareness to support military operations.
The E-8C is a modified Boeing 707-300 series commercial airframe extensively remanufactured and modified with the radar, communications, operations and control subsystems required to perform its operational mission. The most prominent external feature is the 27-foot (8 meters) long, canoe-shaped radome under the forward fuselage that houses the 24-foot (7.3 meters) long, side-looking phased array antenna.
