British and German warplanes have intercepted two Russian jets and a spy plane caught flying without transponder signals over the Baltic Sea.
The German airforce shared pictures of the encounter, with several images capturing the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft in flight.
RAF and German Air Force Typhoon fighters were scrambled together from Ämari Air Base in Estonia on Tuesday to identify the military aircraft.
“Reconnaissance flights intercepted. German and British Eurofighters were alerted to identify three military aircraft,” the German Luftwaffe wrote on Twitter.
“The two SU-27 Flankers and an IL-20 from Russia were flying again without transponder signals in international airspace over the Baltic Sea.”
It comes amid heightened tensions between Moscow and the West over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian military aircraft regularly fly from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad and back, meaning that such encounters are fairly routine in the region.
Germany handed over responsibility for Nato’s Baltic air policing mission to the UK earlier this month. Nato allies pitch in to protect the air space there because Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia do not have their own fighter jets.
An RAF spokesperson confirmed: “RAF and German Air Force Typhoon fighters scrambled together from Ämari Air Base in Estonia yesterday against unidentified aircraft over the Baltic Sea close to Estonian airspace.
“The aircraft, operating as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing (BAP) Mission intercepted a Russian military IL-20 jet that was being escorted by two Sukhoi Su-27 Flankers.”
The Norwegian air force said it had similarly identified a group of Russian military aircraft in international airspace over the Barents Sea to the north of the country on Tuesday.
And in March, a Russian aircraft was intercepted by RAF and German fighter jets near Estonian airspace in the first joint exercise between the two Nato allies.
Two British and German Typhoon jets were scrambled when a Russian air-to-air refuelling aircraft failed to communicate with Estonian air traffic control. The MoD stressed the “routine” nature of the mission.
Just one week prior, Russian fighter jets forced a US drone out of the sky over international waters in the Black Sea, according to US officials.
The US airforce said a pair of Russian Sukhoi Su-27 aircraft performed a “reckless, environmentally unsound and unprofessional” set of manoeuvres, dumping fuel and damaging the propeller of an MQ-9 drone, forcing the US to bring the craft down.
