A U.S. Air Force RC-135V Rivet Joint conducted a highly unusual flight in the Gulf of California yesterday, between Mexico’s Baja Peninsula and the rest of that country, according to online flight tracking data. The strategic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) plane looks to have done the same today.
The Rivet Joint is one of America’s most capable intelligence-gathering assets and the appearance of one off the Mexican coast is a significant development. This comes amid a major increase in U.S. military support for operations along the border with Mexico under President Donald Trump and talk of unprecedented direct action by American forces against drug cartels, which you can read more about in this separate TWZ feature.
Flight tracking software shows RC-135V serial number 64-14845 flew southwest from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska to the skies over southern California on Feb. 3. Offutt is home to the 55th Wing, which oversees the bulk of the Air Force’s Rivet Joint fleet along with an array of other ISR and highly specialized command and control aircraft. The jet then hooked south along the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula before flying up into the Gulf of California. The aircraft subsequently returned to Offutt following the same route, but in reverse.
Additional flight tracking data indicates that 64-14845 conducted a sortie along essentially the same route earlier today.
There may have been additional recent Rivet Joint flights over the Gulf of California prior to Jan. 3, but TWZ has not been immediately able to verify that independently.
Despite how relatively narrow the Gulf of California is, there are international waters and airspace above at its center. There are no indications that 64-14845 ever entered Mexican national airspace in the course of any of these flights.
When queried about 64-14845’s activity off the coast of Mexico, the U.S. Air Force redirected TWZ to U.S. Northern Command (NORTHCOM). We have also reached out to the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.
It is worth noting up front that the use of RC-135V/W Rivet Joints to support operations in the Western Hemisphere, especially counter-drug missions, is not necessarily well known but is also not new, something TWZ has highlighted in the past. Rivet Joints flying sorties tasked to NORTHCOM, specifically, is something that occurs on a somewhat regular basis, as well.
In addition, RC-135V/Ws have been tracked flying in international airspace near Baja on the Pacific side in the past, typically in support of exercises in the ranges off of southern California.
However, by all accounts, Rivet Joint sorties in the Gulf of California are at least exceedingly rare, if not an entirely new collection area for the jets. From there, 64-14845 could listen into the northwestern corner of Mexico, an area that largely falls under the influence of the infamous Sinaloa Cartel.
Each airliner-sized RC-135V/W is packed with a variety of signals intelligence (SIGINT) systems that detect and intercept communications and other electronic transmissions. The aircraft can also geolocate and categorize the emitters sending out those signals, from radios to radars.
On a typical mission, an RC-135V/W’s crew consists of more than two dozen individuals, which includes linguists, electronic warfare officers, and other intelligence specialists who can immediately begin analyzing the information the SIGINT suites collect. The Rivet Joint also has an extensive communications array that allows data to be passed in near real-time to nearby units in the field and/or to nodes globally for further exploitation and dissemination.
Intercepting and geolocating communications chatter, together with other intelligence, can help establish so-called “patterns of life” for a select individual or group of individuals. That information, in turn, can be used to help further refine intelligence gathering strategies or even plan and execute targeted ground raids or strikes.
Similarly, data provided by Rivet Joints can also help in the creation of what are known as electronic orders of battle detailing the disposition of enemy or potentially hostile forces, especially air defense units and command and control nodes, in a given area. However, this is not applicable to the flights off the coast of Mexico.
Rivet Joint flights in the Gulf of California could provide a valuable additional stream of intelligence on cartel operations and other illicit activities, as well as just better situational awareness about what is happening in a critical cartel activity area. That would be in line with official statements from the Pentagon about its expanded presence around the southern border since Trump took office in January.
“We anticipate that overall, on the southwest border, [active-duty personnel] will provide real-time situational awareness of persons, vehicles, vessels and aircraft; and they’ll work with [U.S. Customs and Border Protection] on operator-level maintenance, movement and staging of [CBP] assets,” a senior U.S. military official said last month. “We also anticipate that there could be some additional airborne intelligence, surveillance, and support assets that would move down to the border to increase situational awareness.”
USNI News reported yesterday that U.S. Navy P-8A Poseidon maritime patrol planes are now conducting flights along the border with Mexico as another example of increased U.S. military ISR support. P-8As also have extensive SIGINT capabilities, as well as turrets with electro-optical and infrared video cameras.
Intelligence that RC-135V/Ws, as well as other ISR aircraft, collect could be passed along to other U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies, including to support interdiction operations on land and at sea. The U.S. military has an established history already of providing near real-time information from aerial surveillance platforms about suspected drug smuggling and other illicit activities to law enforcement agencies along the border, as TWZ has explored in detail in the past.
Certain intelligence might also be passed to authorities in Mexico to support their counter-drug and other operations. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum pledged to deploy 10,000 troops on her country’s side of the border to help combat drug trafficking yesterday as part of an ostensible deal to try to stave off a trade war with the United States. Sheinbaum’s predecessor, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, had similarly agreed to send 10,000 troops to the border back in 2021 as part of an earlier agreement struck with former President Joe Biden’s administration.
The appearance of a Rivet Joint in the Gulf of California also comes amid open discussion about the possibility of the U.S. military taking direct action against drug cartels in Mexico, including targeted strikes. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said in an interview on Fox last Friday that “all options will be on the table,” but added that any such decision to act would rest with Trump.
The capabilities that the Air Force’s RC-135V/Ws offer mean its presence could be a precursor to such an operational intent, dramatically increasing the quality and volume of available intelligence collection. Rivet Joints are used regularly in this general role in the lead-up to larger operations. As just one example, Rivet Joints flew regularly off the coast of Syria in the lead-up to U.S.-led missile strikes on multiple targets in that country in April 2018 during Trump’s first term in office.
At the same time, RC-135V/Ws are also used to collect regular intelligence from a standoff distance all over the world. So, it is important to stress that there are no indications at the time of writing that any such direct military activity is imminent or even planned. In addition, even if the flights were conducted with the explicit approval of the Mexican government, pursuing that course of action would have far-reaching ramifications. TWZ has published a feature just today exploring these issues, which you can find here.
Still, openly conducting Rivet Joint sorties in the Gulf California, together with the rest of the expanding U.S. military presence around the southern border, does already send broader signals to Mexico’s cartels across the region.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com