Norwegian fighter jets intercept Russian aircraft near country's borders

Norwegian fighter jets have been scrambled on two consecutive days to identify Russian military aircraft in international airspace over Finnmark.

Source: Norwegian Armed Forces, as reported by European Pravda

Details: A Russian Il-20M aircraft was flying with its transponder switched off on Wednesday 11 March.

Two Norwegian F-35 fighter jets on standby took off from Evenes Airbase. They identified and escorted the aircraft along the Norwegian coast before it turned north.

Later, the aircraft was identified near the Lofoten Islands and escorted by two Norwegian F-35 jets.

On the same day, Spanish fighter jets intercepted two Russian aircraft as part of NATO's Eastern Sentry mission.

Background:

• In January, Swedish rapid reaction forces detected and intercepted Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea.
• At the beginning of March, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) reported the detection and tracking of two Russian Tu-142 military aircraft operating in the Air Defence Identification Zones (ADIZ) of Alaska and Canada.
• At the end of February, a similar incident occurred in the Alaska ADIZ, when NORAD tracked five Russian aircraft.

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