Nato scrambled its jets more than 300 times this year to intercept Russian jets near its airspace – a marked decrease compared with 2022.
The number of interceptions was about 570 in 2022, according to reports, due to tensions with Russia and a higher presence of Nato forces on Russia’s eastern flank.
Nato has continuous air-policing missions that require allied jets to scramble in response to any signs of suspicious activity from Russian military planes nearing allied airspace. Suspicions can be raised by aircraft not indicating their position or altitude, by not submitting a transponder code, not filing a flight plan or not communicating with air traffic controllers.
However, according to Nato the vast majority of aerial encounters between alliance and Russian jets were ”safe and professional”. Actual breaches of Nato airspace by Russian jets remain rare, and if they do happen they are generally of short duration. Läs artikel