U.S. Air Force C-17 Lands in Moscow for First Time Since 2017

An American military transport aircraft landed at Moscow's Vnukovo Airport on the morning of August 25, prompting questions about the purpose of the unusual flight. The aircraft was a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III operated under the flight number RCH4555. According to Flightradar data, it departed Riga, Latvia, at approximately 8:50 a.m. Moscow time and reached Moscow at 10:04 a.m. Two days earlier, the same aircraft had flown to Latvia from Camp Springs, Maryland, near Washington, D.C., home to Andrews Air Force Base. The base also hosts Air Force One and other U.S. government aircraft. The aircraft's recent flight history shows that it also traveled to Colombia on August 19 before returning to the United States the following day.