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Russian fighter jet shot down by Typhoon fighter jet as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission
2 hours ago
In a cramped room in a building near the runway at Amari Air Force Base in Estonia, a TV is showing old episodes of the American series Friends.
Feet on the table, coffee cups in hand, a little loose joke. On the TV screen is the character Rachel, who has just returned from the hairdresser, Ross is upset about something. Then an aviator appears through the door and calmly announces, “Zombie headed north from Kaliningrad.”
Immediately, everyone is on their feet and heading to the adjoining operations room, where screens and digital maps labeled “NATO SECRET (North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Western Military Alliance)” flash amidst the deluge of incoming data.
This is the rapid reaction force for Operation Azotize, NATO’s Baltic air policing mission guarding the military alliance’s northeastern border, whose borders are regularly tested by Russian planes.
Since April, the RAF’s 9th Typhoon Fighter Squadron has taken command of the mission, which was then commanded by the German Richthofen squadron.
Russia’s allout invasion of Ukraine has forced NATO to focus its efforts on securing its eastern borders. The goal is simple: prevent Russia from invading anywhere else, especially a NATO country like one of the three Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) or Poland.
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Scott Maccoll says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changed the dynamics of his squadron’s operations
“Zombie” is the code for a suspiciously acting Russian plane.
“It could be three things,” explains Flight Commander Scott Maccoll of RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. “Either he didn’t file a flight plan or they don’t screech [comunicando] or simply not responding to air traffic control. Sometimes it’s all three.”
In this case, it turned out to be a false alarm, since the “zombie” turned north, moving away from NATO borders.
The Estonian Amari Air Base, home to the Typhoon fighter jets, was home to the Soviet Air Force during the Cold War, and there is still a cemetery in the nearby forests where Soviet pilots are buried with the tailplanes of their old MiG15s are and MiG17.
Currently, the mission of these NATO pilots is complicated and relentless.
Now that Finland is joining NATO, the Baltic Sea will be bordered by seven Western Allies, soon to be eight once the way is clear for Sweden to join.
But Russia still has two strategic bases there: St. Petersburg, Russia’s second largest city in the east, and its enclave of Kaliningrad, the former Prussian city of Koenigsberg and its hinterland, a place now littered with missiles and other military hardware.
Russian Su27 flanker fighters, Airborne Command and Control planes and cargo planes are constantly flying between these two bases and beyond in the Baltic Sea, keeping NATO air forces constantly on their toes.
“So we can sit there with our feet on the table, have a cup of coffee and the next moment the alarm goes off,” says one of the Typhoon’s youngest pilots, who asked not to be named.
“We respond to every alarm as if it were real. So we run to the plane, put on our gear, start the engines, buckle up and talk to the tower.” [de Controle] and with Operations on the radios we get our clearance and then we taxi and take off as fast as we can.”
In the hangar, another pilot approaches one of the Typhoons. They are armed and “on standby” when needed.
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RAF pilots are always ready to take off
Flight Commander Rich Leask points to a long, slender missile attached to the side of the fuselage.
“It’s Meteor,” he says. “It has been in use since 2018. It has its own active search radar at the front and is selfpropelled at the rear with a ramjet (a type of jet engine that has no moving parts).”
Other smaller missiles, designed for closerange aerial combat, remain menacingly hovering on the wingtips.
So what actually happens when pilots approach these Russian “zombies”? Guess no one wants to start losing missiles and start WWIII?
“Our job here is to protect NATO airspace,” Maccoll replies, adding cryptically, “Our rules of engagement are classified.”
Another pilot is a little more specific. “We don’t know which aircraft we’re going to intercept. So we pull alongside, identify the plane and then we get more information, more mission statements from Operations Center and act on what they tell us.”
What I do know is that these RAF pilots take a lot of photos of the zombies, good ones too, while approaching them and escorting them through NATO airspace.
“We flew eight intercept missions,” says Maccoll. “They were all against Russian planes… We’ve been patrolling the Baltic Sea from the air for several years, but there’s no doubt that last year’s illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia changed the dynamic here.”
This dynamic has also changed on the ground, where there is now a greater need to deploy enough ground forces to thwart future Russian incursions.
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Cemetery where Soviet pilots are buried along with the horizontal stabilizers of their old MiG15 and MiG17
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who grew up in the Soviet Union, tells me she has no doubts that if the invasion of Ukraine is successful, it is only a matter of time before Russian President Vladimir Putin turns his attention to the Baltics Conditions.
As part of NATO’s “enhanced forward presence” policy in these countries and Poland, there is a Britishled multinational combat group based in Tapa in northern Estonia.
The Challenger 2’s main battle tanks, multiple rocket launchers, Wildcat and Apache helicopters, and even a French Foreign Legion are designed to deter Moscow’s every move.
“NATO’s challenge here in the Baltics,” says Brigadier Giles Harris, who is leading Operation Cabrit, the British contribution to Estonia, “is to stop Russia without escalating[the conflict].”
However, compared to the massive forces that Russia can muster across the border in normal times, the numbers are tiny.
It was grudgingly admitted that the NATO deterrent force in Estonia would essentially act as a ‘detonator’, triggering rapid reinforcements if Russian forces pushed west.
Does NATO have enough forces?
“Combat groups [no Báltico] “That should be enough of a deterrent,” says Brigadier Harris. “If that fails, we’re finished.”
“If Russia invades, we will go east and fight them.”