NATO jets scramble to intercept Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea in latest ... trends now
NATO fighter jets were dispatched yesterday to intercept a Russian reconnaissance aircraft that infringed on Swedish airspace in the Baltic Sea.
The Ilyushin Il-20 electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) aircraft was registered breaking into the Swedish flight information region close to the island of Gotland, which is widely seen as the most strategic location in the Baltic Sea.
A pair of Eurofighter Typhoon jets were scrambled from an airbase near the German town of Laage to meet the Il-20, which NATO Air Command declared was not responding to requests for identification.
Codenamed 'Coot-A' by NATO, the Il-20 ELINT plane is packed with radar arrays and sensors designed to gather intelligence and help other aircraft and armed forces identify key vulnerabilities in their adversaries' defence networks.
Germany's air force, the Luftwaffe, sharing unsettling images of the fighter jets closely flanking the Russian plane.
'A deployment of our alert squadron of the Tactical Air Force Wing 71 ''Richthofen'' out of Laage. Together with our [Swedish] partners we checked a [Russian] reconnaissance aircraft at Gotland,' a post by the Luftwaffe read.
FILE PHOTO: A Swedish JAS 39 Gripen E fighter jet flies over Sweden's Gotland island in the Baltic Sea, May 11, 2022
City view of Visby on the Swedish island Gotland
Russia's air force regularly conducts sorties that see their aircraft enter into the flight information region (FIR) of NATO nations, without entering the airspace proper.
Unlike an unauthorised infringement of a country's airspace - which would be seen as a direct violation of its sovereignty - an infringement of the FIR is seen as a less serious, but still alarming, breach of airspace rules.
But the Russian spyplane's flight path close by Gotland will be seen as additional cause for concern, given the island's importance.
Described by analysts and commentators as a 'giant aircraft carrier', Stockholm-administered Gotland lies just 120 miles off the coast of NATO's Baltic triad of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, but also just 230 miles north of the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
Its prime location offers huge advantages in the deployment and control of air and sea traffic in the Baltic Sea, and has been referenced regularly by military analysts and commentators in Russian media as a highly desirable target.
Sweden maintained a military presence on Gotland during the Cold War and the island at its peak housed up to 25,000 troops, but in 2005 it was almost completely demilitarised.
But now, with Sweden's accession to NATO complete and amid increased tensions with Russia, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the prospect of re-arming Gotland was 'one obvious thing to be discussed with our new NATO allies' as part of
