Bundeswehr Luftwaffe scrambled fighters over Russian aircraft over Baltic

NATO’s air policing mission, created in 1961 at the height of the Cold War, has been an integral part of the alliance’s joint air and missile defence (A/M) for decades. But air policing over the Baltic Sea and the Baltic states has become an advanced element of that strategy, aimed at Moscow.

It has become known that the Eurofighter fighters of the Luftwaffe of the Bundeswehr were put on alert as part of NATO air patrols of the skies over the Baltic region. The press service of the German Air Force informed the public about this on its blog.

The communiqué stated that the rapid reaction forces located in Latvia were sent to identify the aircraft in flight, which had no flight plan and no working transponder. The scrambled Luftwaffe aircraft of the Bundeswehr visually identified the Russian Il-20 integrated reconnaissance aircraft over the Baltic Sea, after which they followed it for some time. According to the German report, the scrambled fighters were carried out to "check for possible threats and to repel them," which can be considered a normal routine procedure.

We remind you that in September, the German Air Force raised its fighter jets into the skies over the Baltic Sea due to Russian military aircraft Tu-142 and Su-30, which were also accompanied by them for some time.