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The fact that NATO fighter jets have to fly to investigate unwanted activities in the airspace of the military alliance is a frequent occurrence: more than 400 times in 2020 alone, according to data from the US broadcaster CNN. About 90 percent of the cases involved incidents involving Russian aircraft. What happened that Monday surprised even experienced analysts.
The planes had to take off from different bases ten times because the Russian planes had approached the airspace of the member states. There were “six different groups of Russian planes in less than six hours,” a NATO spokesman said. This means a “rare peak value”. These incidents included:
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Norwegian F-16 fighter jets monitored two Russian Tu-95 long-range bombers near the Norwegian coast
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The Russian planes then flew south over the North Sea. British and Belgian planes took off in response.
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The Norwegian Air Force was also later alerted to two Tu-160 supersonic bombers.
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NATO planes monitored the flight of three Russian planes over the Black Sea
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Italian fighter jets intercepted a Russian naval plane over the Baltic Sea near the city of Kaliningrad.
Despite this unusual concentration of incidents, NATO emphasized that none of the numerous Russian aircraft had entered the airspace of a member state. There is still no comment from Russia on Monday’s flight movements.
Just last week, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg called on Russia to reactivate the so-called NATO-Russia Council. This body, which aims to facilitate exchange and mutual rapprochement, has not met since 2019
