Seven Russian military planes in formation north of Finnmark
NATO’s
Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) was alarmed Tuesday as radars up north detected
Russian planes approaching Norway’s airspace of interest over the Barents Sea.
A few minutes later, a pair of F-35 fighter jets were on their wings out of
Evenes airport to check out, the Norwegian Air Force informs via Facebook.
iFinnmark was first
to report about the event.
The Norwegian pilots could soon identify, and
photograph, two Tu-160 strategic bombers followed by two tank planes to support
mid-air refueling and three fighter jets protecting the bombers.
According to the Defense Ministry in
Moscow, the flight lasted for 14 hours and the planes continued west to
airspace over the Norwegian Sea. The tankers provided refuelling two times.
Russian strategic bombers have all since 2007
regularly made flights outside Norwegian airspace, either only up north, but
also en route further south to the North Sea region. After the full-scale
invasion of Ukraine last year, though, such flights out of the Kola Peninsula
are less frequent than before February 2022.
It is unclear whether the Tu-160s observed on Tuesday
came from Olenogorsk-2 air base on the Kola Peninsula or if the plane flew
north from Engels air base near Saratov. As previously reported by the Barents
Observer, Russia moved a few Tu-160 and Tu-95 bombers to the Kola Peninsula
after Ukrainian drones hit the Engels air base last autumn.
The MiG-31 belongs to the air defense forces of the
Northern Fleet.
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