The British spy plane that is complicating Putin’s plans: the RAF Rivet Joint
The Rivet Joint RC-135W of the Royal Air Force, a spy plane considered by the Americans as "one of the crown jewels", has a very high capacity to collect information in real time on theaters of war and send it directly to Defense Intelligence (DI) in Whitehall, home to the UK Department of Defense. The DI had warned the government and services of a probable Russian invasion as early as April 2021
British and American spy planes are conducting regular missions on the fringes of Ukraine's airspace, where RAF (British Royal Air Force ) sources constantly monitor Russian communications on the battlefield. The Times reports this in a very detailed article. The information intercepted by the RAF's RC-135W Rivet Joint electronic surveillance aircraft, also known as Air Seekers , explains the Times , is collected directly by Defense Intelligence (DI) analysts based at the Ministry of Defense in London and then eventually shared. with Ukrainian officers on the field. This information is crossed with other information to predict the moves of the Russian army.
These aircraft use special sensors to collect communications from the Russian battlefield and can geolocate a wide spectrum of signals, helping to paint a realistic picture of what is happening on the ground. The sophistication of these devices is such that they can intercept the radio transmissions of a convoy of troops hundreds of miles away or even more. Conversations into Russian or another language are translated on board and then sent directly to Whitehall, the headquarters of the London Ministry of Defense. The RAF's Rivet Joint is regarded by Americans as "one of the crown jewels" in terms of information gathering.
In fact, it is an aircraft entirely dedicated to electronic surveillance that can be used in all theaters in strategic and tactical missions. Its sensors "absorb" electronic emissions from communications, radar and other sources. The aircraft employs sophisticated systems such as the Weapons System Officer (WSO) and the Weapons System Operator (WSOp) whose mission is to detect, identify and geolocate signals across the spectrum in order to obtain information for Ukrainian commanders. The interior of a Rivet Joint accommodates more than 30 people, including the cockpit crew, “electronic warfare” officers, intelligence operators and in-flight maintenance technicians. Analyzing all the data provided by the Rivet Joint is a team of military intelligence officers from Defense Intelligence (DI) based on the seventh floor of the Ministry of Defense building in London, who work 24 hours a day to define the battle plan of the Russian army and provide contraindications to the Ukrainian generals who in this way will always have an advantage over the attackers. The data accumulated by the DI is also crossed with the data provided by MI6, the British secret service.
In reality, the flagship of this whole operation, in addition to the Rivet Joint which is the spearhead, is the English Defense Intelligence . A department in which 5,000 people work, of which two thirds are military and one third civilians. Experts include linguists, civil scientists, psychologists, geographers and data analysts . At its helm, the Times explains, is Lieutenant General Sir Jim Hockenhull, chief of defense intelligence. He was integrated into the intelligence corps in 1986 and as a junior officer spent his early years focusing on Russia, which he knows very well. Hockenhull and his team began focusing on Ukraine as early as April last year, when Russia began amassing troops along the border. The DI warned the British government – and its international partners around the world – of Russia's intention to invade Ukraine many months before the conflict began.
British defense sources told the Times that the effort is part of a broader effort among NATO governments to use all intelligence gathered to reveal Putin's moves and ultimately try to help save Ukraine. And indeed, after the initial lightning advance of Russian troops, British intelligence is giving the Ukrainian armed forces an undeniable advantage over the Russians and could even decide the fate of the war in the long run. Philip Ingram, for example, a former senior military intelligence officer, said Russia is failing all targets due to its lack of intelligence. “The battalion battle groups do not understand how to work together, the GRU, Russia's foreign intelligence agency, is not fed properly. Soldiers go blind and only react to orders. In addition, the Russian forces are also poorly equipped and in addition some soldiers use commercial telephones to communicate that they are easy to intercept ”.
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This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Atlantico Quotidiano at the URL https://www.atlanticoquotidiano.it/quotidiano/laereo-spia-britannico-che-sta-complicando-i-piani-di-putin-il-rivet-joint-della-raf/ on Tue, 15 Mar 2022 03:53:00 +0000.