Fighter jets scramble to intercept a Russian spy plane over Baltic Sea

German and Swedish fighter jets were scrambled to intercept a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea, NATO has revealed. The military bloc said that two planes, a Swedish JAS Gripen and a German Eurofighter Typhoon, were sent from their respective bases were forced to identify and escort a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 that was flying over the Baltic Sea on Saturday.

NATO Air Command said the operation highlighted Sweden ‘s ‘seamless integration into the Alliance.’ Sweden’s armed forces, the Försvarsmakten, said its plane flew over Bornholm, a small island in the Baltic Sea belonging to Denmark, to intercept the Russian plane.

Germany’s air force, the Luftwaffe, meanwhile added that the Russian plane was flying ‘without a flight plane and transponder’, adding that its Eurorighter flew from a NATO base in Latvia. It is not currently known exactly what the Ilyushi-Il-20, known for its developed spying capabilities, was doing over the Baltic Sea.

But its built-in capabilities, which include specialised signal capturing technology, as well as large cameras and several large antennas, allows it to transmit vast 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 the time: ‘Clear behavior was not predictable.’

And in 2022, just a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany said it scrambled two Eurofighter Typhoons from Ämari Airport in Estonia a IL-20 flying without a transponder code in international airspace between the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad Oblast and the Russian mainland.

Its capabilities, and the number of operators need to utilise them, 13, slows the Ilyushi down massively, with a maximum speed of just 419 mph at an altitude of 8,000m (26,000ft). The Eurofighter Typhoon is much faster, and can reach speeds of up to 1,320 mph at 11,000m (36,000ft) altitude. The JAS Gripen is also much faster than the Ilyushi, with a top speed of 1,300 mph at an altitude of 15,240m (50,000ft).

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