German and Swedish fighter jets were scrambled on Sunday to intercept and monitor a Russian surveillance aircraft operating unannounced over the Baltic Sea, military officials have confirmed.
Two Swedish Gripen and two German Eurofighter jets were deployed into international airspace to track the Russian IL-20 reconnaissance plane. The aircraft had been flying without providing a flight path or establishing radio contact, according to air force officials from both countries.
The monitoring operation concluded without incident, taking place as NATO and European Union member states maintain heightened alert for Russian military and reconnaissance activities in and around their airspace.
On Friday, three Russian fighter aircraft entered Estonia’s airspace without permission and stayed there for 12 minutes, the Estonian Foreign Ministry said. That happened just over a week after NATO planes downed Russian drones over Poland and heightened fears that the war in Ukraine could spill over.
“Today, (Swedish) JAS 39 Gripens and (German) Eurofighters were scrambled over the South Baltic Sea, identifying and monitoring a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace,” the Swedish air force said on its X account.
The German Luftwaffe said its jets had initially followed the Russian plane before handing off monitoring to the fighters from NATO ally Sweden, and then returning to Rostock-Laage airfield in northern Germany.
On Saturday UK fighter jets embarked on their first Nato policing mission over Poland since Russian violations of the country’s airspace – by patrolling the area where 19 drones were shot down earlier this month.
The Government announced it would provide further air defence over the eastern European nation – with RAF Typhoons setting off from RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire on Friday night.
Seen very much as a defensive mission by those on board, the fighter jets, which were given the call signs “chaos 1-1” and “chaos 1-2”, policed the skies close to Belarusian and Russian airspace.
Nothing significant was reported from the UK’s first Nato “Eastern Sentry” operation.
