BRUSSELS, October 30. /TASS/. Allied Command of NATO’s Armed Forces in Europe claims that it is registering an unusually high level of Russian Air Force activity in the skies over Europe.
Specifically, a report issued on Wednesday alleged that four groups of Russian warplanes held exhibition maneuvers over the Baltic, North, and Black Seas, as well as over the Atlantic Ocean on October 28 and October 29. These flights demonstrated what NATO believes to be an unusual level of activity in the European Air Space.
The report claimed that four strategic missile carrying bombers Tupolev-93 and four Ilyushin-78 refueling tanks made a flight in the airspace over the Black Sea overnight to October 29. They did not provide the plans of their flight and did not respond to the inquiries from civil air navigation services, thus allegedly putting commercial flights at risk.
Wednesday afternoon, NATO radars tracked down two Tupolev-95 bombers and two Sukhoi-27 fighter jets over the Black Sea. The same group included two Sukhoi-34 fighter-bombers, a fourth-generation Su-34 all-weather fighter, and two Sukhoi-27 jets with variable-sweep wings.
NATO claims that two MiG-31, two Sukhoi-34, one Sukhoi-27 and two Sukhoi-24 jets were sighted over the Baltic Sea. The combat group did not issue a flight plan either and it did not contact civilian air controllers.
NATO officials say the warplanes of the alliance have made more than a hundred sorties since the beginning of this year to intercept Russian military jets and the figure exceeds by a factor of three the sorties made last year.