[Smartisan]

A very good question that I don’t have the answer to. A ‘bomber’ flying near/over UK sells far better than ELINT/SIGINT to the average reader.

Quickly re RC135’s, they also entered service with the RAF and 51 Squadron last year. Highly capable platforms it seems.

[RayChuang88]

The reason why I mention that was when the Soviets originally built the Tu-142 in the late 1960's, it was specifically designed to counter the threat of US Navy ballistic missile submarines carrying the Polaris SLBM. The long range and relatively high cruising speed at lower altitudes made it ideal for this mission; it has undergone a larger number of upgrades since it entered service with Soviet Naval Aviation in 1970.

Today, the Russian Tu-142 fleet have been heavily upgraded into a full ELINT/SIGINT platform, and are often seen flying in the North and Baltic Seas and near Japan on intelligence gathering missions. In fact, the very fact the planes have a quite high radar cross section due to the big turboprop engine blades makes it ideal to test Western reaction the presence of these planes.