NATO chases Russian aircraft

HELSINKI NATO scrambled fighter jets twice in two days to intercept Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, it said Tuesday amid reports that Russian military activity in the region is increasing.

Lt. Col. Robert Gericke said the Russian aircraft were flying in international airspace and had not violated the territory of alliance members.

Two Canadian F-18 Hornet jets were scrambled from the Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania on Monday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft, which they shadowed for some 15 minutes, NATO said.

Once identification was successful, the intercept mission was completed and the two Hornets returned to their base, a NATO statement said.

Earlier, the Latvian military tweeted that NATO F-16 jets were dispatched Tuesday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin-20 surveillance aircraft over the Baltic Sea. Gericke confirmed that NATO jets had also intercepted a Russian aircraft that day, but could not immediately provide more details.

NATO, which has 16 fighter jets in the region monitoring Baltic airspace, said it regularly dispatches jets to identify unknown or potentially hostile aircraft in the proximity of national airspace.

There were two similar incidents in the region Oct. 7 and Sept. 11, but on neither occasion did the Russian aircraft constitute a threat to NATO forces, the alliance said.

Meanwhile, Sweden's military is working on two new observations that could be evidence of suspected foreign underwater activity near the country's capital, a senior naval officer said Tuesday.

Swedish forces have been scouring the sea off Stockholm since Friday, after what the military called three credible reports of activity by foreign submarines or divers using an underwater vehicle.

The vessels were unidentified, but during the 1980s, the Swedish navy from time to time hunted suspected Soviet submarines in its waters.

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NATO chases Russian aircraft