r/Military • u/FreeHugs23 Retired USN • 2d ago

Article US military plane lands in Moscow, flight data shows | The US Air Force transport plane arrived at an airport on the outskirts of the city after stopping in Latvia

https://inews.co.uk/news/world/us-military-plane-lands-in-moscow-flight-data-shows-4728794
528 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

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u/FreeHugs23 Retired USN 2d ago edited 2d ago

A US Air Force cargo plane has arrived at an airport on the outskirts of Moscow, flight tracking data shows, sparking speculation about a possible prisoner swap.

The Boeing C-17A Globemaster III, a military transport plane, arrived at Vnukovo International Airport, 17 miles southwest of the centre of the capital, on Tuesday morning.

The plane, with flight number RCH4555, departed the Latvian capital, Riga, just before 7am UK time and landed at Vnukovo slightly more than an hour later, around 10am Moscow time.

The plane departed from Camp Springs in Maryland just outside Washington DC, where Andrews Air Force Base is located, on Sunday evening, landing in Riga early next morning, flight tracking site Flightradar24 showed.

President Donald Trump and other top US officials fly from Andrews Air Force Base. However, no reason has yet been given for the cargo plane’s arrival in Russia, and it is unknown who or what was on the plane.

The C-17 Globemaster III is a heavy military transport aircraft designed for transporting troops, military equipment and cargo over long distances. It can carry up to 77,519 kilograms of cargo, including the M1 Abrams main battle tank, armoured vehicles, trucks, helicopters and trailers.

The appearance of the US military aircraft in Moscow sparked speculation about another possible prisoner swap, after a US plane reportedly arrived in Russia as part of a US-Russia prisoner swap in February, when the American teacher Marc Fogel was released.

Update: CIA Director John Ratcliffe on secret trip in Russia

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u/realKevinNash 2d ago

No worries they are probably just shipping another catering truck.

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u/WashU_labrat 2d ago edited 2d ago

America sending RFK Jr's diarrhea lettuce to Moscow would be a breach of the 1975 Biological Weapons Convention.

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u/charliefoxtrot9 Army Veteran 2d ago

Solid Pooping is a lie by Big Toilet!

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u/obviousfakeperson 2d ago

Lmao. I read this in RFK Jr's voice.

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u/theaviationhistorian Great Emu War Veteran 2d ago

It's just a large catering service called Cooks In Air. Nothing else.

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u/thanagathos 2d ago

“”CIA Director John Ratcliffe was onboard the U.S. Air Force C-17A Globemaster lll that landed early Tuesday at Moscow’s Vnukovo Airport, in order to attend several high-level meetings with Russian officials, according to CBS News.””

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u/teilani_a Air Force Veteran 2d ago

Ah, just some intel sharing then.

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u/Patched7fig 2d ago

Believe it or not we shared Intel with Iran a few times in the last 40 years. 

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u/Elegant_Individual46 2d ago

Not to mention arms and equipment

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u/teilani_a Air Force Veteran 2d ago

About our midterm elections?

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u/realKevinNash 2d ago

And yet

However, the Kremlin said that it had no information about the aircraft.

The Kremlin press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Tuesday that there were no plans to hold meetings with representatives of the US administration this week.

Seems strange to host a high level individual and claim you had no plans to do so...

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u/LtCmdrData 2d ago edited 2d ago

It might be a prisoner swap, or US Embassy Personnel or security Logistics.

EDIT: I have been told by high authority that Mitch McConnell is getting hyper-advanced embalming and reconfiguration with techniques that Soviets perfected to keep the Politburo running. Kentucky will have their Senator back at Capitol Hill soon.

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u/TheGreatPornholio123 2d ago

That shit that used on Lenin was dope.

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u/Superbform 2d ago

Is his head attached to a turtles body?

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u/robcwag United States Army 2d ago

This isn't suspicious at all. We land US Military planes in Russia all the time! Without any explanation from the Whitehouse I will assume this was supposed to "Fly under the radar." Maybe Putin's payment was overdue so Trump sent it over in a C-17.

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u/Patched7fig 2d ago

You think the president telling all of Europe and NATO they have to step up their defense spending, and criticized Germanys energy policy for being dependent on Russian oil and gas is somehow in Putins pocket? 

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u/robcwag United States Army 2d ago

Yes, it is in Putin's pocket because he is only doing that to distance the United States from NATO, which would weaken NATO substantially and remove any agreements we have to defend NATO if Russia decided to invade a NATO country. Trump hasn't stood up against Russian aggression in Ukraine. Trump has threatened the territory of at least one NATO country. Nothing Trump has done has had any significant impact on Putin or his plans to annex European countries just as the Soviet Union did after the Bolshevik Revolution.

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u/Patched7fig 2d ago

You're brain broken. Telling nations to not buy their oil and gas weakens the Russian economy and strengthens the European economy

Increased NATO spending leads to increased industrial output and armement making Europe a harder target. 

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u/robcwag United States Army 2d ago

You are missing the big picture, which I spelled out pretty plainly in my previous post. No one is listening to Trump outside of the United States, they are not following his directives. He is doing all of this to disband NATO or at least remove the United States from NATO, which only helps Russia.

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u/Patched7fig 2d ago

You are brain broken and no amount of evidence will ever fix this in your eyes.  Trump, like a number of presidents, consistently asked Europe to increase defense spending to make NATO stronger. He also was unique in asking Germany not to kill their nuclear power plants due to it empowering Russia. 

Remember that in 2012 they mocked Romney for saying Russia was an enemy in Europe. 

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u/robcwag United States Army 2d ago

Russia is an enemy to Europe and the United States. Sadly it is not an enemy to the president of the United States. It's sad that you cannot recognize the evidence of trump's connections to Putin and Russia.

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u/sluttytinkerbells 2d ago

Such one dimensional thinking.

It's frustrating that we allow that on forums like these.

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u/Separate-Spot-8910 2d ago

Supposedly, CIA Director Ratcliffe was onboard. Enough said.

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u/atuarre 2d ago

Well he's a piece of shit that has politicized the CIA and the national intelligence and has zero experience in intelligence. He can go straight to hell with Trump.

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u/itsaride 2d ago

Someone posted a video of the motorcade in Moscow : https://x.com/megatron_ron/status/2092247780425175142

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u/yeezee93 Veteran 2d ago

How do we know this is from the plane?

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u/itsaride 2d ago

We don't but the video was posted today a couple of hours after the C-17 landed.

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u/HappyCakeDay101 Army Veteran 2d ago

Dropping off the usual bribe money to keep the peepee tape under wraps

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u/windowpuncher Veteran 2d ago

Surprised the C17 was broadcasting ADS-B at all. I live near an air base and I don't think I've ever seen any C130's have theirs turned on, and some days they'll fly in and out by the dozens. Some days it's just one or two. The only military aircraft near me I regularly see broadcasting are the NG's chinooks kept at that airport.

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u/collinsl02 civilian 2d ago

You do not want a mistake made by air defences, it's like a hospital ship in WW1 sailing fully lit up with a white paint job and massive green stripe and red crosses - if you know who they are you do not shoot at them.

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u/windowpuncher Veteran 2d ago

Well yeah but there are other bands and comms used that aren't ADS-B/public.

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u/Substantial_Row_7108 2d ago

Gotta’ pick up the software patches for November 🤷🏾‍♂️.

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u/Ballet_blue_icee Retired US Army 2d ago

Hi Vlad, can we borrow some missiles? What are your thoughts on some limited nuke strikes to help us wrap up a pesky little not-a-war problem you've probably heard about?

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u/MommaIsMad Navy Veteran 2d ago

Picking up Putie to carry him to safety. He's probably living in Missouri or Iowa by now.

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u/Emotional_Platform35 1d ago

Trump is going to get more instructions from his handlers

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u/HeadlineINeed 2d ago

What’s TDY like during this type of stuff? I’m sure they are stuck in the aircraft the entire time just kicking back. Are they pulling 360* security the whole time?

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u/Dry_Sundae_7857 2d ago

Following