tu-22m3
The Tu-22M3 can reach every NATO Baltic capital from Russian bases on the Kola Peninsula, with a strike range of 2,400 km. Wikimedia Commons

Air forces from six North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) countries scrambled together on Monday to track two nuclear-capable Russian supersonic bombers and roughly 10 fighter escorts that flew without transponders or filed flight plans over the Baltic Sea.

The simultaneous response from France, Sweden, Finland, Poland, Denmark, and Romania came while Western attention stayed fixed on US-Iran talks and the war in the Middle East.

Six Air Forces, One Russian Sortie

The Russian formation was led by two Tu-22M3 'Backfire' strategic bombers.

French Rafales armed with air-to-air missiles launched from Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania under NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission. Two-man Rafale crews, already suited up and on standby, raced to their hangars and lifted off within minutes, an Associated Press reporter on the base witnessed.

Swedish JAS 39 Gripens took over north-east of Gotland shortly after 10 a.m. local time before handing off to a Danish F-35A near the island of Bornholm, the Swedish Armed Forces said.

The Russian strike package included about 10 Su-30 and Su-35 fighters that rotated escort duty for the two bombers, which lifted off from Olenya Air Base in western Russia. At least one Tu-22M3 was photographed carrying a live Kh-32 anti-ship cruise missile under its fuselage.

A Fourth Scramble in Seven Days

Lithuania's defence ministry said NATO jets had already been scrambled four times between 13 and 19 April over Russian aircraft that switched off their transponders and flew without filing flight plans. Monday's mission made it five interceptions inside eight days on the alliance's north-eastern edge. The pattern echoes January, when NATO jets also flew up to meet Tu-22M3 bombers over the Baltic.

Before Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, NATO intercepted Russian military aircraft around 300 times a year, mostly over waters off northern Europe. Lithuanian officials say that the pace has picked up since, with Kaliningrad, Russia's heavily militarised exclave between Poland and Lithuania, anchoring much of the traffic. The exclave also hosts Iskander short-range ballistic missile units capable of striking Warsaw, Berlin, and Copenhagen within minutes.

Nuclear-Capable Bomber, Civilian Skies

The Tu-22M3 is designed to carry nuclear weapons and long-range cruise missiles, with an operational radius of about 2,400 kilometres (roughly 1,500 miles). That range covers every NATO capital on the Baltic from Russian bases on the Kola Peninsula.

Civilian risk is the point security officials keep raising. The Baltic Sea is one of Europe's busiest shipping and flight corridors. NATO says Russian aircraft that cross it with transponders off are invisible to civilian radar and collision-avoidance systems, a hazard flagged by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) after a string of near-misses and since revisited by regulators.

Moscow Says 'Scheduled', West Watches Closely

Russia's defence ministry said on Telegram that the bombers carried out a planned long-range training flight over neutral waters of the Baltic Sea and that it lasted more than four hours. The ministry said the aircraft were 'accompanied by fighters of foreign states' at certain stages and insisted the sortie followed international rules on airspace use.

NATO's Allied Air Command has not publicly responded. Stockholm, Helsinki, and Warsaw have spent the past year tightening shared rules for faster reaction times, and Sweden's accession to NATO in March 2024 has closed the net around the Baltic.

Monday's interception pulled six air forces into a single choreographed response, a reminder that the quieter front in NATO's confrontation with Russia is anything but quiet.

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