£3 app spots UK spy plane

A TOP-SECRET British spy plane on a mission to eavesdrop on Vladimir Putin’s air defences was tracked using a £2.99 mobile phone app.

The £650 million RAF aircraft, called Rivet Joint, could be seen at 27,000ft as it tried to gather intelligence about a heavily defended Russian base on the Baltic Sea.

A minute-by-minute record of the highly classified mission to study the Kaliningrad naval air base was watched by hundreds of thousands of people on the internet, and details were shared on Twitter.

Radar pictures on social media suggested the RAF jet flew to within 60 miles of the Russian base at 478 knots (550 mph), accompanied by US spy planes and F-35A stealth jets.

Former Air Commodore Graham Pitchfork warned that websites such as Flightradar24.com and Planefinder.net had made it almost impossible for the RAF to maintain operational secrecy.

An MoD spokesman said: ‘We do not comment on speculation on operational or intelligence matters.’