NATO jets, including Canadian Hornets, scrambled twice in two days to intercept Russian spyplane

NATO QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) jets scrambled twice in two days to intercept Russian military aircraft

The Il-20 is the most frequent Russian Air Force aircraft intercepted by NATO fighter jets in the Baltics.

Noteworthy, as the Swedish Air Force is hunting the foreign submarine in the Stockholm archipelago, the spyplane has been intercepted twice in two days, over the Baltics.

According to the Latvian military on Oct. 20, a Russian Il-20 was intercepted by Royal Canadian Air Force CF-188s scrambled from Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania. Then, on the following day, Portuguese AF F-16s, also deployed to Siauliai airbase for NATO Baltic Air Policing mission were scrambled to intercept and shadow an Il-20 Coot intelligence gathering aircraft.

Russian Air Force Il-20s regularly fly in the Scandinavian region causing alert scrambles by NATO planes providing QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) for the Baltic Air Policing mission. On Mar. 3, 2014 one the Russian ELINT (Electronic Intelligence) planes almost collided with SAS Boeing 737 with 132 people on board southwest of Malmö, Sweden.

Image credit: RCAF

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About David Cenciotti

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David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.