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German and Swedish fighter jets were deployed to intercept a Russian spy plane over the Baltic Sea, NATO has revealed.
The military bloc said two aircraft, a Swedish JAS Gripen and a German Eurofighter Typhoon, were sent from their respective bases and 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 armed forces, the Försvarsmakten, said their plane flew over Bornholm, a small Baltic Sea island belonging to Denmark, to intercept the Russian plane.
Germany’s Luftwaffe air force, meanwhile, added that the Russian plane flew “without an aircraft and 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, were sent from their respective bases and forced to identify and escort a Russian Ilyushin Il-20.
It is currently not known exactly what the Ilyushi-Il-20 (photo), 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 thanks to its built-in capabilities, including specialized signal capture technology, as well as large cameras and several large antennas, the device can transmit large amounts of information to ground command in near real time.
Early last year, the Luftwaffe said it had been forced to send two Eurofighter Typhoons to intercept another Ilyushi-Il-20 over the Baltic Sea, which had reportedly “changed direction several times,” and the air force added at the time admitted: ‘Obvious behavior was not predictable.’
And in 2022, just a few months after Russia invaded Ukraine, Germany said it had flown two Eurofighter Typhoons from Estonia’s Ämari Airport, an 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 required to use them, 13, slow the Ilyushi immensely, with a maximum speed of only 419 mph at an altitude of 8,000 meters (26,000 feet).
The Eurofighter Typhoon is much faster and can reach speeds of up to 1,320 mph at an altitude of 11,000 meters (36,000 feet).
The JAS Gripen is also much faster than the Ilyushi, with a top speed of 1,300 mph at an altitude of 15,240 meters (50,000 feet).
More to follow.