NATO jets scrambled 18 times to identify Russian planes over Baltic
PR dla Zagranicy
Paweł Kononczuk
08.08.2017 10:31
NATO fighter jets patrolling air space over the Baltic countries were scrambled 18 times last week to identify Russian war planes flying over the Baltic Sea, Lithuania’s Ministry of Defence has said.
Photo: pixabay.com/Redaction_Web/Creative Commons CC0
Most of the Russian planes had their transponders switched off, which meant they could not be identified automatically.
Most of the Russian aircraft did not respond to air traffic control.
NATO planes patrol the airspace of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which do not have their own fighter jets, as part of the Baltic Air Policing mission.
The mission started when the three countries joined the Western military alliance in 2004.
Currently, the Baltic countries’ airspace is patrolled by the Spanish air force, stationed in Estonia, and Polish F-16 fighters based Lithuania.
(pk)
Source: IAR