[Llarry]

Continuing my series on surveillance/Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft, here are a few from around the world.

The Chinese People's Liberation Army Naval Air Force has modified a number of Y-8 transports into SIGINT collection aircraft. The Chinese have been pretty aggressively objecting to U.S. aircraft conducting intelligence collection operations in international waters off the Chinese coast. At least at present, the Chinese military does not have bases to support collection against the U.S. (They do apparently have a balloon floating over the U.S. at present, though.)

The Japanese have had surveillance aircraft for years. Their Navy's EP-3 are old; I'd expect something newer in the future.

Germany had a number of Atlantique aircraft modified for SIGINT duties but the airplanes succumbed to old age. They first planned to use U.S.-sourced Global Hawk drones for SIGINT, but then decided to use the Canadian-built Bombardier Global 6000, which is already in use by the UAE. Basically the Germans have allowed their airborne SIGINT collection capability to atrophy for 15+ years; the 6000s have been purchased but modifications are not yet completed.

The Russians had several types of SIGINT-capable aircraft during the Cold War era. In particular, as a Navy veteran, I remember Soviet Tu-95 and Tu-142 aircraft overflying our U.S. Navy ships as we transited the Pacific and Atlantic. These Bears (NATO codename) had a minimal SIGINT capability but we always assumed they were listening to us, as we were to them. I believe the primary Russian SIGINT aircraft these days is the Il-20M.

Another invaluable U.S. aircraft is the old standby, the Lockheed U-2. In the case of the U-2, the aircraft may have both antennas for signal collection and cameras/side-looking aerial radar. However, the "take" is downlinked (or uplinked to a satellite, then down) to a ground station.

Australia, France, Israel and others also have similar aircraft; this is just a sampling.