NATO fighter jets scrambled 12 times over Baltic states last week

NATO air policing jets were scrambled a dozen times in the Baltic region last week, with most missions involving patrols along external borders but also responding to several incidents, Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence reported Monday.

According to the ministry, a drone detected in southeastern Estonia last Tuesday was identified and destroyed by allied fighter jets. That same day, additional patrols were conducted along the Latvia-Estonia border.

Between May 17–24, NATO air policing aircraft operating in the Baltics took off 11 times to patrol near the borders of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland with Russia and Belarus. One additional scramble was carried out to intercept and escort aircraft violating flight regulations.

On Wednesday, jets were launched twice—once for patrols over Latvia and Lithuania, and again to investigate a potential object in Estonian airspace. Four more scrambles followed on Thursday, with patrols along the southeastern borders of Latvia and Lithuania.

On Friday, NATO fighters intercepted two Russian Su-30S aircraft flying in international airspace from Russia’s Kaliningrad region. The Russian jets had transponders turned off, no flight plans filed, and maintained no radio contact with regional air traffic control.

Over the weekend, one scramble occurred to investigate a possible object in Lithuanian airspace, while another patrol was conducted along the eastern Polish and southeastern Latvian borders.

Lithuania’s defence ministry noted that NATO’s Baltic air policing mission has been active since March 2004, when Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia joined the alliance. Since then, air policing duties in the region have been carried out by rotating detachments from Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the US.