Thousands watching USAF tankers flying near Ukraine suporting spy planes

Thousands are watching US Air Force tankers flying near Ukraine that are supporting spy planes. The spy planes are Royal Air Force Boeing RC-135Ws and USAF RC-135Ws (below). Both aircraft are RC-135W Rivet Joint airborne SIGNIT (signals) platform (modified Boeing 707) and its sensor suite allows the mission crew to detect, identify and geolocate signals throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. SEE the podcast: Flight Safety Detectives dissect the Netflix doco “Downfall”. READ: Etihad Airways unveils its new A350 READ: Can the giant AN-225 fly again?   Here are the flight paths of the spy planes . Here are the tanker's flight tracks of the tankers. ABOUT AirlineRatings.com Airlineratings.com was developed to provide everyone in the world a one-stop shop for everything related to airlines, formed by a team of aviation editors, who have forensically researched nearly every airline in the world. Our rating system is rated from one to seven stars on safety – with seven being the highest ranking. Within each airline, you will find the country of origin, airline code, booking URL, and seat map information. The rating system takes into account a number of different factors related to audits from aviation’s governing bodies, lead associations, as well as the airlines, own safety data. Every airline has a safety rating breakdown so you can see exactly how they rate. Over 230 of the airlines on the site that carry 99 percent of the world’s passengers have a product rating. Given that low cost, regional and full-service carriers are so different we have constructed a different rating system for each which can be found within each airline.