NATO fighter jets policing Baltic airspace were scrambled four times between 10 and 16 November in response to Russian military flights and unidentified radar tracks over Lithuania.
According to Lithuania’s Ministry of National Defence, the alerts formed part of the regular Baltic Air Policing mission and did not involve any confirmed violations of NATO airspace.
On 10 November, allied jets were launched to identify two Russian aircraft – a Su-24 strike aircraft and a Su-33 fighter. The aircraft were flying in international airspace over the Baltic Sea between parts of the Russian mainland. They did not cross into the sovereign airspace of any Baltic state.
Lithuanian authorities reported that the Russian jets were flying without activated transponders, had not submitted flight plans and were not in radio contact with the Regional Air Traffic Control Centre. Such flights are permitted for state and military aircraft but are regarded by regional authorities as increasing the risk to other airspace users, particularly civil aviation.
On 11 November, NATO fighters were ordered to investigate an unidentified object detected over Lithuania. The jets proceeded to the indicated area but did not find any aircraft or drone corresponding to the radar track. No airspace violation by foreign state aircraft was recorded.
A similar event took place on 13 November. Once again, NATO aircraft were scrambled to check an unidentified object reported in Lithuanian airspace. As in the earlier case, the object was not visually identified and no aircraft was located. Lithuanian officials did not publicly attribute the radar return to any specific cause.
The fourth scramble that week occurred on 14 November. NATO jets intercepted a Russian Su-24MR reconnaissance aircraft and a Su-33 flying, as on 10 November, in international airspace between parts of the Russian mainland. The ministry stated that these aircraft were also operating without switched-on transponders, without filed flight plans and without radio contact with civilian controllers.
The incidents fall under the standing Baltic Air Policing arrangement, in place since 2004, under which allies provide fighter aircraft to secure the airspace of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The three states do not maintain their own combat air fleets and rely on rotational detachments based mainly at Šiauliai in Lithuania and Ämari in Estonia.
These detachments keep quick reaction alert fighters on standby around the clock. When an aircraft approaches NATO airspace without proper identification, fails to maintain radio contact, or appears on radar as an unidentified track, the QRA fighters are sent to identify it visually and, if necessary, to escort it.
Russian military aircraft regularly transit international airspace over the Baltic Sea on routes between the Russian mainland, the Kaliningrad exclave and other bases. Baltic and NATO officials report that many of these flights take place with transponders switched off, without flight plans and without radio contact with civilian air traffic control.
International law does not oblige state aircraft to comply fully with civil aviation procedures. However, authorities in the region argue that flying “dark” in busy international corridors complicates air traffic management and can make it harder for civilian pilots and controllers to maintain safe separation from military traffic.
The Lithuanian report on 10–16 November must also be seen in the context of a generally higher level of Russian air activity in the region this year. In September, three Russian MiG-31 fighters were reported to have entered Estonian airspace near Vaindloo Island for several minutes. They were flying without flight plans and without transponders and did not respond to air traffic control. NATO fighters deployed under the Baltic Air Policing mission intercepted them, and Estonia asked for consultations within the Alliance in response.
Latvia has since argued that the existing air policing framework should be strengthened into a more robust air defence posture, with additional assets and adjusted rules for the use of force. Other allies have so far treated Baltic Air Policing as a deterrence and reassurance measure rather than a full combat air defence system.
MiG-31s over Estonia expose a NATO posture Moscow now expects
