Incident over the Baltic Sea

German Air Force intercepts Russian military aircraft

A Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft(Bild: AFP)

According to the German Air Force, an IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft was intercepted over the Baltic Sea on Saturday. The aircraft had been flying without a transponder.

The air force announced on Platform X that it had taken off "on a protective flight" to intercept a Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea. Eurofighters had been deployed.

The contribution of the German Air Force:

As part of NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission, Germany monitors the airspace over the Baltic states, which do not have their own fighter jets available.

Already several incidents over the Baltic Sea
Since the beginning of the Russian war of aggression, there have been repeated incidents in the Baltic Sea. A similar case occurred just under a year ago in April 2023: German and British Air Force fighter jets intercepted three Russian reconnaissance planes in international airspace over the Baltic Sea. They had flown "again without transponder signals", whereupon Eurofighters were deployed.

According to Russia, a German military aircraft approached Russian airspace in mid-January 2023, whereupon a fighter jet flew up to "accompany" the German Lockheed P-3C Orion maritime reconnaissance aircraft.