The Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons intercepted a Russian An-26 transport aircraft over the Baltics. And here are some photos.
On Feb. 1, 2018, two Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon F-2000A jets executed their first Alert Scramble to respond to a Russian Federation Air Force aircraft that flew over the Baltic Sea with the transponder turned off.
The two aircraft were actually not launched but “diverted” from a training flight when the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at Uedem, Germany, detected an unidentified track crossing the Baltic airspace over international waters.
The two ItAF Typhoons, belonging to the Task Force Air 36° Stormo, identified the “zombie” as a Russian Federation Air Force An-26 transport aircraft. According to NATO, the two Italian aircraft flew alongside the transiting Russian plane and broadcast their transponder signal allowing civilian air traffic controllers to keep other air traffic clear of the area.
The Italian Air Force Typhoons have been deployed to Ämari Air Base, Estonia, augmenting NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission since early January 2018. Together with the Royal Danish Air Force lead detachment at Siaullai, Lithuania, their task is to provide 24/7 fighter capabilities that can be launched by the CAOC at Uedem, Germany, in response to unidentified air tracks in the Baltic Region.
The Italian detachment logged 100 flying hours during training flights over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania beneficial for both Italian pilots and Baltic military air traffic controllers to further improve skills and interoperability, on Jan. 25, 2018.
This is the second ItAF rotation in support of NATO BAP mission. From Jan. 1 to Aug. 27, 2015, as part of the TFA (Task Force Air) based at Šiauliai, Lithuania, four Typhoons of the 4°, 36° and 37° Stormo (the three Wings that fly the Euro-canard) logged about 900 flying hours, launching for 40 A-Scrambles (Alert Scrambles) and more than 160 T-Scrambles (Training Scrambles) during the first rotation as lead detachment of NATO BAP. Noteworthy, no photograph of intercepted Russian aircraft was released during and after the 2015 detachment, even though the Italians had some really interesting close encounters with some pretty interesting aircraft, including some Tu-160 Blackjack and Su-27 Flanker jets. However, unlike what happened three years ago, this time the Italian MoD has promptly shared some shots of the An-26 intercepted by the Typhoons, including those that you can find in this post.
Image credit: Italy MoD
Wery interesting photos, thank you!
Look at the angle of attack these Typhoons are flying on in order to match the speed of An-26!
Compare these photos with recent footage of Russian Su-27 chasing EP-3 over Balck sea – Russian plane is much more stable on low speeds.
I bet Typhoon will stall if An-26 slows a bit.
Compare the level of professionalism and thuggish behavior.
Then, I’ll quote you:
“And this is the highest level of professionalism – it takes enormous skill to stay in perfect formation with [a] plane as slow as [the] An-26.”
Don’t try to compare reconnaissance plane flying along the border with its electronic sniffing devises turned on and an old thrash hauler flying from one Russian airbase to another.
Trying to show interception of this An-26 as an act of valor is just a hysteria.
Pilot’s skills are undoubtful, btw.
BS! It’s a spy aircraft disguised as an innocent cargo hauler. Why did it have its transponder off, hmmm Ilya? What are those long, rectangular protrusions aft? Yeah – antenna!
Thanks for adding words into my mouth, but since we are here…
That plane did something very unsafe, in turning off the transponder. Civilian traffic and all.
Secondly, a bomber is much more dangerous than a recon plane. And on that, you can’t claim any high ground.
Transponder off = Measuring NATO’s intercept reaction time, boundaries, procedures in the very least. Give me a break will ya Ilya???
Do you compare the stability of an aircraft only watching a pic?? Really outstanding!!
It’s plain physics, no more.
in this case its called talking out of you 4th point of contact…
Notice the safe distance and the lack of stunts endangering the other crew. That’s how grown-ups do their job.
War has rules?
There are some rules, yet, but most importantly, is Russia at war with NATO? As far as I can see, no.
Whats happening in Syria then?
Has NATO engaged and shot any Russian plane, or killed any Russian soldier? With the glaring exception of Turkey being a clear idiot who no one likes in NATO or even Europe, that shot down that Russian plane.. I don’t see your point.
Well if NATO continues to spread uninvited like a carcinogen, it shouldnt be too alarmed at these intercepts. No worries, they aren’t “aimed” at anyone, nothing personal, just business.
so why does America conducts reconnaisance missions against Russia then? Is NATO at war with Russia?
Why is Russia sending bombers, and sometimes spy planes through NATO borders, and even the US itself?
Like I said before, Crimea is not Russian, and that area has quite a few NATO members, with Ukraine being an ally.
I need some samples of Russian borders crossing of NATO borders.
Crimea as an autonomous republic made its choice via public and legitimate referendum, something Catalonians were not allowed to do.
NATO has all the rights to defend borders of its allies (Ukraine is not NATO ally, btw), but does not have any reasons and excuse to spy against Russia, in other way, conduct unfriendly military actions against independent country.
Ukraine asked for aid, therefore it is an ally, not a NATO member.
I love it that you just seem to miss things.
https://theaviationist.com/2018/02/02/here-are-the-photos-of-the-first-italian-typhoons-alert-scramble-in-the-baltics-this-year/
https://theaviationist.com/2015/07/07/f-22-and-f-15-intercepted-off-alaska/
https://theaviationist.com/2017/04/21/heres-why-the-u-s-air-force-scrambled-an-e-3-sentry-alongside-two-f-22s-to-intercept-the-russian-bombers-off-alaska/
Sorry man,
Airspace over Baltics is still international, no NATO borders crossed.
>Ukraine asked for aid, therefore it is an ally< The most funny thing I've heard recently. The fact that Ukraine asked somebody to help doesn't make it an ally/ This is just a confirmation that country can't cope with it's own internal problems. And don't try to talk about hypothetical Russian invasion: in all these four years nobody managed to find any evidence of presence of Russian hordes in Ukraine. Just look at Syria! Every terrorist seems to have an IPhone! They film everything! Why don't we have such footage from Ukraine?
Interesting asymetrical AIM120 loadout on the Typhoon bellies.
Reminds me of a similar MICA belly loadout with our Mirage 2000-5 during another Baltic (even if in this picture the rear pylons are not carrying missiles).
http://img.over-blog-kiwi.com/0/64/42/44/20170107/ob_aa7693_15369291-731652363652998-8908522306159.jpg
Turks everyday are violating greek airspace.In 2017 we had 1800 violations.No one bats an eye.When Russians fly in international space but close to other countries airspace everyone loses their minds.And we are talking about almost everyday dogfighting not just violations
West constantly paranoid about Russia and is whipped up by the media, no surprise.
Russia is constantly paranoid about the West, and is whipped up by the government control media. No surprise.
Google: “Re-visiting Russian counter-propaganda methods”
You might be surprised how Russia reacts to western propaganda.
Quote:
“The main difference was this: if the Soviet went out of their way to prevent western propaganda from reaching the Soviet people, the Russians are nowadays doing the exact opposite: they are going out of their way to make sure that western propaganda is immediately translated and beamed into every single Russian household.”
Also very interesting:
“Documents expose how Hollywood promotes war on behalf of the Pentagon, CIA and NSA”
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/exclusive-documents-expose-direct-us-military-intelligence-influence-on-1-800-movies-and-tv-shows-36433107c307
So, instead of showing an American or NATO backed news stations or agency within Russia transmitting actual fake news or propaganda you will quote movies from Hollywood.
Remind me again whose country RT, Pravda,Sputnik et al news agencies or channels belong to again?
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4c3120014dd60f1c8430f07283597a883fac0dacf6efe06f3df85a5b0143dcfe.jpg
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/a84b631b8e5b2ba27b31ebaaa3f708cf20f1e2f9c7a7ba5fbd7bbc3c679452d4.jpg
Which is why I’m in favor of kicking the Turks out of NATO.
Well, nowhere else to put this so I might as well place it here. Like I said, and like some fanboys were quick to (foolishly) argue with me, the Textron Scorpion has been DROPPED from the light attack fly-off:
Air Force Chooses AT-6, A-29 for Secondary Light Attack Experiment
“The Air Force has selected two aircraft in its “light attack experiment” to undergo more demonstration fly-offs, among other exercises, at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.
The service intends to test the Textron Aviation AT-6 Wolverine and
the Sierra Nevada/Embraer A-29 Super Tucano from May to July 2018 at the
base, it said in a release Friday.”
https://www.military.com/dodbuzz/2018/02/02/air-force-chooses-6-29-secondary-light-attack-experiment.html
Told ya the Scorpion didn’t stand a chance. Some of you tried to argue about that with me. Wrong move! Ol’ Leroy was right on the F-35, and he was right on the Textron Scorpion. Textron will never sell a single Scorpion airframe in my august opinion. So there!
Oh, that Air Tractor? Same thing. Give me a break! Too ugly to fly for any AF. No combat pilot with an ounce of dignity would ever want to be seen flying that thing! Not unless he was crop-dusting, the mission for which it was made.