Russian Jet Forced Out Of Baltic Air Space By Dutch F-16 Fighters On NATO ‘Policing’ Mission

A Russian jet identified as a military transport plane flew through Baltic air space dangerously close to the countries of Lithuania and Estonia Wednesday night, without revealing its flight plan to either country in what appears to be just the latest in an increasingly worrying series of provocations by Russian jets, possibly testing NATO defenses.

A pair of Poland-based F-16 NATO fighter jets immediately took to the skies to intercept the Russian jet and escort it on its way to its intended destination in Kaliningrad, a Russian base in the Baltic Sea. The Netherlands Defense Ministry revealed the latest confrontation with a Russian jet on Thursday.

The two NATO F-16 fighters that scrambled out of Malbork, Poland to cut off the rogue Russian Ilyushin II-76 jet were from the Dutch Air Force, and have been stationed in Poland in September on a NATO mission to police the skies over the Baltic region.

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