Transponder turned off, set radio contact: The Russian Air Force has partially switched their maneuvers over North and Baltic Sea on mute. According to NATO 26 military aircraft were involved.

NATO has given more details about the Russian military aircraft in the skies over Europe known. Accordingly, in the past few days during maneuvers total of 26 Russian military aircraft were involved in different incidents.

On Wednesday afternoon, NATO reportedly eight Russian aircraft over the North Sea, the Baltic Sea and four more via been identified over the Black Sea. Moreover, NATO reported seven aircraft of the Russian Air Force on the Baltic Sea.

Unclear as yet there is the question of how far the Russian bombers flew exactly the one hand, NATO reported that Russian aircraft had advanced as far in the air space over Britain and the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal. On Wednesday, a spokesman for the military alliance had emphasized, however, that the NATO airspace had not been injured in the Russian actions.

The accumulation of contacts in international airspace in is “unusual”. According to NATO figures, the Western alliance has discovered more than a hundred Russian aircraft in European airspace this year, three times as much as last year.

Air maneuvers over Europe: Potential risk for civil aviation

The defense alliance also reacted with the use of fighter jets. Forces from Germany, Great Britain, Norway, Portugal and Turkey were therefore used. About the North Sea four long-range bombers of type Tupolev Tu-95 and four air tankers wants NATO claims to have spotted Ilyushin Il-78.

The NATO criticized the Russian armed forces had during the maneuvers partially neither timetables nor transmitted radio contact maintained with the civilian air traffic control. In part, the Russian aircraft had turned off their transponder. These forward as an automatic signal generator air traffic controllers important information to an aircraft, such as the identifier or the type. This behavior constitutes a potential risk for civil aviation.

Whether the flight is a reaction of Russia to the hard line of the West, remains unclear. Poland announced last troop reinforcements to the east of the country. Given the Ukraine-NATO crisis had intensified their operations. So they want to put a sign of solidarity with our Eastern Member States, who feel threatened in view of the annexation of Crimea by Russia and the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

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