NATO intercepts Russian jets over Baltic Sea
Amid reports of increased activity, F-18s are dispatched to turn away a Moscow surveillance plane.
Second time in 2 days »
NATO intercepts Russian jets over Baltic Sea
By MATTI HUUHTANEN
14 hours ago
HELSINKI (AP) — NATO scrambled fighter jets twice in two days
to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, it said
Tuesday amid reports that Russian military activity in the region is
increasing.
Lt. Col. Robert Gericke said the Russian aircraft
were flying in international airspace and had not violated the territory
of alliance members.
Two Canadian F-18 Hornet jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on Monday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft, which they shadowed for some 15 minutes, NATO said.
Two Canadian F-18 Hornet jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on Monday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft, which they shadowed for some 15 minutes, NATO said.
"Once
identification was successful, the intercept mission was completed and
the two Hornets returned to their base," a NATO statement said.
Earlier,
the Latvian military tweeted that NATO F-16 jets were dispatched on
Tuesday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft over
the Baltic Sea. Gericke confirmed that NATO jets had also intercepted a
Russian aircraft that day, but could not immediately provide more
details.
NATO, which has 16
fighter jets in the region monitoring Baltic airspace, said it regularly
launches jets to identify "unknown or potentially hostile aircraft" in
the proximity of national airspace.
There
were two similar incidents in the region on Oct. 7 and Sept. 11, but on
neither occasion did the Russian aircraft constitute a threat to NATO
forces, the alliance said.
In
the past five days, the Swedish Navy has been combing the Stockholm
archipelago for signs of a foreign submarine that officials suspect
entered its territorial waters illegally. It hasn't officially linked
Russia to the suspected intrusion.
The
Finnish military says that Russian military aircraft have violated the
small Nordic country's airspace five times this year, and the
Environment Institute said Russian military ships had twice intercepted
one of its research vessels in international waters.
On
Sept. 5 an Estonian security service officer was detained on the
Russian border — Estonia and Russia disagree on which side of it — and
is still in custody in Moscow.
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