F-35s Intercept Russian Spy Plane, Fighter Jets at Edge of NATO Airspace in Central Europe

A pair of F-35s stationed in northern Europe were dispatched to intercept a trio of Russian warplanes, including two jet fighters, on Monday evening after being detected flying towards NATO airspace with their transponders off.

Three Russian aircraft, an Il-20M intelligence-gathering (‘spy’) plane and two SU-27 Flankers — a Russian analogue to the U.S. F-15 Eagle — were intercepted near the Russian-Polish border on Monday. While they did not enter NATO airspace, they were said to have approached Poland from the Kaliningrad Oblast, a small Russian exclave on the Baltic wedged between Poland and Lithuania with their transponders turned off and also flew in neutral airspace over the Baltic, Poland’s Gazeta Wyborcza reports.