NATO fighters escorted Russian military aircraft five times last week
Last week NATO fighter aircraft, as part of the Baltic air patrol mission, scrambled five times to identify and escort Russian military aircraft flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. This was stated in a report from the Lithuanian Ministry of Defense.
According to the country’s military department, last Tuesday the allied fighters identified and escorted an IL-20 plane en route from the Kaliningrad area to mainland Russia and on Wednesday flew with an An-24 plane flying from the main territory of the Russian Federation to the Kaliningrad area. On Friday, NATO pilots took off twice to escort An-24 and Tu-134 aircraft flying in international airspace to the Kaliningrad region.
Fighters also scrambled on Sunday to escort a Tu-134 aircraft with two accompanying Su-27 fighters, all proceeding from the Kaliningrad area to the continental part of Russia.
Most of these Russian aircraft flew without providing a pre-agreed flight plan; they did not keep in touch with the dispatchers and their transponders were switched off.