NATO jets intercept Russian aircraft over Baltic Sea

By Gozde Bayar

ANKARA (AA) - NATO on Wednesday scrambled fighter jets to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea.

As NATO radars tracked unidentified aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Tuesday morning, NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem, Germany, launched allied fighter aircraft in the Baltic region to intercept and identify the approaching aircraft, NATO’s Allied Air Command said in a statement.

Fighter jets from bases in Estonia, Lithuania and Poland took off to track and intercept aircraft that did not provide flight plans and some of them could not be identified by transponder signals.

“Two Russian Tu-160 Blackjack bombers, escorted by Su-27 and Su-35 fighter aircraft were flying over the Baltic Sea from mainland Russia, where they operated with a Russian A-50 Mainstay airborne warning and control plane that was also escorted by fighters,” the statement said.

The bombers stayed in international airspace above the Baltic Sea and returned to mainland Russia after roughly three hours, it added.