Russian warplanes approaching NATO East-border hundred times in 2024.

This year, 109 instances of Russian military aircraft appearing over the Baltic Sea, near the outer boundary of Latvian territorial waters, have been reported, according to the Latvian Armed Forces. Last year, 159 such cases were recorded. National air forces on Air Policing missions frequently announce interceptions of Russian aircraft near NATO borders, sometimes conducting surveillance missions. These aircraft are regularly intercepted.
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On August 21st, German Air force intercepted russian IL-20 coot-A , dedicatde to SIGINT, above baltic sea. Russian plane haven't no transponder and flight plan (Picture source:X/@Team_Luftwaffe)

For example, this week, the Latvian Air Force announced on the social network X that NATO patrol planes had taken off from the Lielvārde military base as part of a standby mission to identify a Russian Il-20 aircraft that regularly flies over the Baltic Sea without a transponder or flight plan.

In April 2024, the German Defense Minister stated that Russia was "most likely" behind a series of incidents affecting GPS navigation in the Baltic region. Images released by the Luftwaffe on August 26, 2024, revealed the presence of an Il-20M Coot-A, a variant specialized in electromagnetic intelligence (SIGINT) based on the Il-18, in service with the Russian Aerospace Forces. This marked the second time in August that this type of aircraft had been intercepted by German fighters in the region; the first incident was reported on August 14.

So far, such incidents have occurred multiple times in the airspace over the Baltic, as indicated by various reports published by NATO and the Russian Aerospace Forces. While many of these flights are conducted in accordance with international law, they remain an indicator of how NATO and Russian military forces are testing the reaction and response capabilities of integrated air surveillance systems.

The situation has become so recurrent that, just 48 hours after this episode was recorded, the German Air Force also reported on August 27 that another Russian aircraft operating in a similar manner had been intercepted by its Eurofighters. This time, it was a variant of the Il-20M, designated Coot-C, specialized in electronic intelligence (ELINT), marking the third episode of the month involving this class of aircraft from the Russian Aerospace Forces (VKS).

These interceptions and escorts are relatively frequent, but their frequency seems to be slightly increasing, mirroring NATO SIGINT flights in Alliance airspace near Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. The majority of these flights are for intelligence gathering and are in response to reconnaissance flights by Alliance aircraft near Belarusian, Russian, and Ukrainian airspace. However, the interceptions aim to demonstrate NATO's presence and response capability in case of hostile acts. International law does not prohibit flights in international zones but does restrict entry into national airspace.