- This story is breaking news, there will be more to follow.
German and Swedish fighter jets were deployed to intercept a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea, NATO revealed.
The military bloc said two aircraft, a Swedish JAS Gripen and a German Eurofighter Typhoon, sent from their respective bases, were forced to identify and escort a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 flying over the Baltic Sea on Saturday.
NATO Air Command said the operation highlighted Sweden’s “seamless integration into the Alliance.”
The Swedish military, Försvarsmakten, said its plane flew over Bornholm, a small island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Denmark, to intercept the Russian plane.
Meanwhile, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, added that the Russian plane was flying “without a flight plane or transponder,” adding that its Eurorighter flew from a NATO base in Latvia.
NATO said two aircraft, a Swedish JAS Gripen and a German Eurofighter Typhoon, that were sent from their respective bases were forced to identify and escort a Russian Ilyushin Il-20.
It is currently not known exactly what the Ilyushi-Il-20 (pictured), known for its developed spy capabilities, was doing over the Baltic Sea.
Sweden sent a JAS Gripen fighter jet (pictured) to intercept the Russian plane.
It is currently not known exactly what the Ilyushi-Il-20, known for its developed spy capabilities, was doing over the Baltic Sea.
But its integrated capabilities, which include specialized signal capture technology as well as large cameras and several large antennas, allow it to transmit large amounts of information to ground command in near real time.
Early last year, the Luftwaffe said it was forced to send two Eurofighter Typhoons to intercept another Ilyushi-Il-20 over the Baltic Sea, which was said to have “changed direction several times”, with the air force adding at that time: “The clear behavior was not predictable.”
And in 2022, just months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany said it had coded two Eurofighter Typhoons from Ämari airport in Estonia, an IL-20 flying without a transponder code in international airspace between the Russian enclave of Oblast of Kaliningrad and the Russian mainland.
Its capabilities, and the number of operators required to use them, 13, greatly slow the Ilyushi, with a top speed of just 419 mph at an altitude of 8,000 m (26,000 ft).
The Eurofighter Typhoon is much faster and can reach speeds of up to 1,320 mph at 11,000 m (36,000 ft) altitude.
The JAS Gripen is also much faster than the Ilyushi, with a top speed of 1,300 mph at an altitude of 15,240 m (50,000 ft).
More to follow.