NATO fighter jets were scrambled to intercept five Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea without flight plans or active transponders, the Latvian Air Force confirmed on Saturday.
The Russian planes were identified on two separate occasions, on Friday and Saturday, prompting a rapid response from NATO‘s Baltic Air Policing mission.
According to the Latvian Air Force, the Russian jets were detected flying in international airspace near the Baltic states, but had not activated their transponders, an electronic system that helps maintain safe air traffic control.
“Russian jets regularly enter the airspace above the Baltics with transponders switched off, likely to test the response of NATO states,” The Kyiv Independent reported, citing past instances of similar activities by Russian aircraft.
NATO Eurofighter jets participating in the alliance’s Baltic Air Policing mission in Lithuanian airspace on September 12, 2023. NATO fighter jets were scrambled to intercept six Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea without flight plans or active transponders, the Latvian Air Force confirmed on Saturday.
Mindaugas Kulbis/ASSOCIATED PRESS
The scramble involved Eurofighter jets stationed in Latvia, which intercepted and escorted the Russian aircraft.
The German Air Force, which participates in NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, identified the planes as a group of five jets: one Sukhoi Su-35 and four Sukhoi Su-30MKIs.
This latest incident adds to a growing number of similar encounters between NATO and Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
In a separate incident on Tuesday, Latvian radar systems picked up an unidentified object near the border with Belarus, triggering another NATO scramble. Fighter jets from the Lielvarde Air Base were sent to investigate but found no suspicious objects in Latvian airspace.
Later, the Latvian Defense Ministry confirmed that the unidentified object was “a flock of birds.”
Riga said that its air force, in collaboration with NATO allies, has increased airspace monitoring after an incident earlier in September when a Russian Shahed type drone invaded its airspace.
The Shahed drone, equipped with an explosive, crashed in Gaigalava parish in Latvia’s Rezekne district on September 7. According to the Latvian Armed Forces, the drone had entered the country from Belarus and was believed to be on its way to a target in Ukraine before it veered off course and crashed.
According to Article 5 of NATO, if one member state is the victim of an armed attacked, all other member states will come to their aid. Article 5 has only been invoked once in its 75 years after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on in 2001.
Ever since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there have been fears that the war could expand, possibly into Poland or the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania), which are all members of NATO.
However, Putin has said that he does not plan on attacking these countries and in an interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that aired in February, he said Moscow had no interest in invading “Poland, Latvia or anywhere else.”
