This is the moment RAF Typhoon fighter jets intercepted Russian warplanes approaching Estonian airspace.
The British jets were scrambled on Wednesday afternoon to intercept one Russian Air Force IL-20 COOT A and two SU-27 Flankers, the RAF said, after Moscow’s jets ‘failed to comply with international norms’ of communication.
Estonia, a former Soviet state, borders Russia and is one of the 31 members of NATO, and has been one of Ukraine’s most staunch backers since Russia invaded.
The RAF Tycoons that intercepted the Russian jets were from the 140 Expeditionary Air Wing, current deployed to the country and carrying out the NATO Baltic Air Policing mission – part of NATO’s largest air exercise this year.
‘RAF Typhoons from 140 EAW in Estonia were scrambled this afternoon to intercept a Russian Air Force IL-20 COOT A and 2x Su-27 FLANKER B flying close to NATO airspace,’ Britain’s air force said in a post on Twitter.
‘The Russian aircraft failed to comply with international norms by not liaising with relevant FIRs,’ it wrote, adding: #WeAreNato along with photographs of the jets.
The RAF has sprung into action on a number of occasions since the war in Ukraine began in order to deter Russian aircraft from breaching NATO airspace.
On June 9, British jets were scrambled for a second time in 24 hour when Typhoons intercepted an Antonov An-12 Cub and an Antonov An-72 Coaler that were flying south from mainland Russia towards the Kaliningrad Oblast.
The same fighters were then re-tasked to intercept two Tupolev Tu-22M Backfire bombers and two Su-30SM Flanker H fighters that were detected flying from mainland Russia over the Gulf of Finland and the Baltic Sea, the RAF said.
This came after RAF Typhoons and Swedish Air Force Gripens were scrambled to intercept a Russian Air Force IL-20 Coot A and a Su-27 Flanker on Thursday. The Russian jets were flying near Swedish airspace on this occasion.
And in a sign of tensions in the airspace around Ukraine, it was revealed earlier this year that a Russian fighter jet attempted to shoot down a manned RAF jet over the Black Sea, in what could have amounted to an act of war.
Fortuntely, the missile malfunctioned in an incident US defence officials today revealed was far more serious than first thought.
The blundering Su-27 pilot mistakenly believed a radar operator on the ground had given him permission to fire on the British jet and take it down on September 29.
The Russian jet locked on the RAF RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance aircraft and let rip – but its deadly missile failed to launch properly and missed. Previously it was believed the missile was launched by accident – not a deliberate act of war.
Meanwhile, NATO began its biggest ever air force deployment exercise in Europe on Monday, as part of a ‘show of strength’ in the skies.
The German-led ‘Air Defender 23’ will include some 250 military aircrafts from 25 NATO and partner countries including Japan and Sweden, which is bidding to join the alliance. It will run until June 23.
Up to 10,000 service members are to participate in the drills intended to boost interoperability and preparedness to protect against drones and cruise missiles in the case of an attack within NATO territory.
US Ambassador to Germany Amy Gutmann said the move shows all world leaders, including Putin, the ‘strength of this alliance’.
‘The significant message we’re sending is that we can defend ourselves,’ Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz of the German Luftwaffe told public television.
‘Air Defender’ was conceived in 2018 in part as a response to the Russian annexation of Crimea from Ukraine four years before, though Gerhartz insisted it was ‘not targeted at anyone’.
Video: NATO air deployment exercises take off in Germany
He said the exercise would not ‘send any flights, for example, in the direction of Kaliningrad,’ the Russian enclave bordering alliance member states Poland and Lithuania.
‘We are a defensive alliance and that is how this exercise is planned,’ he said.
The first flights began in the late morning at the Wunstorf, Jagel and Lechfeld air bases, a Luftwaffe spokesman confirmed to AFP.
Hundreds of demonstrators had gathered at Wunstorf in northern Germany on Saturday against the drills, under the banner ‘Practise peace – not war’. Protesters called for a ‘diplomatic solution’ to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and an immediate ceasefire.
Gutmann said the exercise would show ‘beyond a shadow of a doubt the agility and the swiftness of our allied force’ and was intended to send a message to countries including Russia.
‘I would be pretty surprised if any world leader was not taking note of what this shows in terms of the spirit of this alliance, which means the strength of this alliance, and that includes Mr Putin,’ she told reporters, referring to the Russian president.
‘By synchronising together, we multiply our force,’ she added.
Russia’s war on Ukraine has galvanised the Western military alliance set up almost 75 years ago to face off against the Soviet Union.
Finland and Sweden, which long kept an official veneer of neutrality to avoid conflict with Moscow, both sought membership in NATO after Russia’s February 2022 invasion.
Under NATO’s Article Five, an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
The exercise includes operational and tactical-level training, primarily in Germany, but also in the Czech Republic, Estonia and Latvia, with a total of around 2,000 flights.
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