This morning, three Eurofighter aircrafts Typhoon Italians of Task Force Air 36 ° Stormo, in Estonia for the NATO Airpolicing mission, had to intervene to identify an aircraft that was crossing Estonian airspace without observing the required identification procedures.
The Italian aircraft, called to carry out what in the technical jargon is called "Alpha Scramble", in a few minutes have intercepted a transport aircraft of the Russian Federation, an An-26 "Curl", entered NATO air space without authorization. The Eurofighter Typhoon they proceeded to the recognition of the Russian aircraft and accompanied it outside the airspace, as required by the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).
At the end of the activity, while the aircraft were returning to the Amari air base, headquarters of the Italian Task Force Air, the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) NATO in Uedem in Germany, responsible for the Baltic air sector, launched a new "scramble" alarm for multiple airways belonging to unauthorized aircraft. A third Eurofighter then took off and also in this case hooked up the radar tracks and in a very short time reached the suspect aircraft, which turned out to be a cargo plane with Sukhoi "Flanker" escort, all with the insignia of the Russian Federation, which were identified and accompanied out of Estonian airspace.
The Italian fighters are assuring, from the first days of January, the integrity of the airspace over the skies of the Baltic Republics under the control of NATO.
In 2004, with the entry into the Atlantic Alliance of the Baltic States and Bulgaria, the airspace of those countries became an integral part of the Euro-Atlantic area and, as such, were included in NATO's air defense and missile system .
This system also includes the activity of Air Policing, which consists of continuous air surveillance aimed at ensuring the integrity and security of NATO's airspace.
