As if testing each others' air defenses wasn't already risky enough, more stuff happens in the Baltic airspace. Was it to remind the world that Crimea is to be an exclave like Kaliningrad and that everything's about edges and nodes. On a day when
a German passenger jet flew into a mountain, knowing who's in the air is important. And as a related development, these bombers were originally developed to use cruise missiles much like the now
reverse engineered Iranian Soumar
"This business will get out of control. It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it."
The Swedish Air Force and NATO jets on Tuesday tracked four Russian combat aircraft flying with their transponders turned off over the Baltic Sea, officials said.
The Russian planes — two long-range, nuclear-capable Tu-22M3 bombers and two Sukhoi Su-27 fighters — were flying in international airspace, according to Sweden's Armed Forces and alliance sources.
NATO said it scrambled Danish jets and Italian jets based in Lithuania early Tuesday to identify the Russian aircraft which it said were heading to the Russian Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad.
"The Russian military aircraft did not use their onboard transponder; they were not in contact with civilian Air Traffic Control and they were not on a pre-filed flight plan," a NATO military officer said on condition he not be identified by name in keeping with alliance practice.
Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom said it was "unacceptable" for the Russian planes to be flying with shut-off transponders that are necessary for identifying aircraft on radar, calling it violation of international aviation rules.
"This has happened now on a number of occasions and in a very challenging way," Wallstrom told reporters in Stockholm. "We are tired of always having to protest against this kind of ... breach of rules."