Two scramble take-offs within the space of an hour for Italian fighters deployed to Ämari in Estonia. This morning, three Italian Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft from the 36th Wing Task Force Air, in Estonia for the NATO Air Policing mission, had to intervene to identify an aircraft crossing Estonian airspace without observing the required identification procedures. The Italian aircraft, called upon to perform what is technically known as an “Alpha Scramble”, intercepted a Russian Federation transport aircraft, an An-26 “Curl”, which had entered NATO airspace without authorisation, within a matter of minutes. The Eurofighter Typhoons proceeded to identify the Russian aircraft and escorted it out of airspace, as required by the rules of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). At the end of the operation, while the aircraft were returning to the Ämari airbase, home of the Italian Task Force Air, the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) in Uedem, Germany, which is responsible for the Baltic air sector, once again triggered a “scramble” alert for multiple air tracks belonging to unauthorised aircraft. A third Eurofighter therefore took off and, once again, locked onto the radar tracks, reaching the suspicious aircraft in a very short time. These turned out to be a cargo plane escorted by Sukhoi “Flanker” jets, all bearing Russian Federation insignia, which were identified and escorted out of Estonian airspace.
Italian fighter jets have been ensuring the integrity of the airspace over the skies of the Baltic Republics under NATO control since the beginning of January. In 2004, with the entry of the Baltic States and Bulgaria into the Atlantic Alliance, the airspaces of those countries became an integral part of the Euro-Atlantic airspace and, as such, were included in NATO's air and missile defence system. This system also includes Air Policing activities, which consist of continuous air surveillance aimed at ensuring the integrity and security of NATO airspace.
