A TRIO of British and US spy planes high-tailed it out of the Gulf amid fears of Iran reprisals over Israel’s missile and drone blitz.
An RAF Rivet Joint plane and two US Rivet Joints scrambled at dawn from Al Udeid airbase in Qatar.
They all flew back to Europe.
The planes are packed with spy sensors for hoovering up signals intelligence and the can monitor air defence radars – providing valuable battlefield intelligence.
All three planes left Qatar between 4am and 5am local time – as Israel announced it had attacked Iran.
Flight records show the US planes had spent weeks taking turns, on alternate days, to patrol Iran’s coast.
The RAF jet spent three and a half weeks at the same US Air Base but the UK crew switched off their transponder so there is no publicly available flight data.
An RAF source claimed the plane was there support the Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier strike group, which is sailing through the region.
UK defen The UK’s Rivet Joint jets are flown by RAF pilots but mostly crewed by government code-breakers from the GCHQ listening post.
The RAF source said the UK spy plane was not involved in Iran operations.
They claimed return to base yesterday was “a coincidence”.
Any intelligence collected by the RAF’s three Rivet Joints is automatically shared with America.
A source said Britain would have been unable to stop America sharing intelligence from British flights with Israel if the Pentagon chose to do so.
One of the RAF’s three Rivet Joints was nearly shot down by Russia over the Black Sea three years ago.
The planes, based at RAF Waddington, Lincs, have been spying on Russia’s defences in southern Ukraine and occupied Crimea.
The RAF Rivet Joint based in Qatar returned to RAF Waddington yesterday.
The US jets flew to Crete.
