Baltics: Data on interceptions of russian vessels and aircraft

Data on interceptions of vessels and aircraft completed near the Baltic States’ borders from January 01 to 27, 2016

From 01 to 27 January fighter jets conducting the NATO Air Policing Mission in the Baltic States were scrambled once to identify and intercept aircraft of the Russian Federation flying near the borders of the Baltic States.

On January 19 NATO fighter jets scrambled from Šiauliai Airbase to identify and intercept an IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft of the Russian Federation.

Tupolev Tu-134Sh

Bound for the mainland of the Russian Federation from Kaliningrad Oblast over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, the aircraft was flying without a pre-filed flight plan, with its onboard transponder turned off and did not maintain radio communication.

A TU-134 military passenger plane, also flying without a pre-filed flight plan, with a switched-off its onboard transponder and not maintaining radio communication, was identify and intercepted during the same scramble.

No breaches of the Baltics airspace were identified.

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Ilyushin IL-20 Coot-A

In addition to using a wide variety of converted bombers and transports for SIGINT duties, in the mid 1960’s Russia developed the Il-8 airliner into a dedicated reconnaissance platform the Il-20M – which was given the NATO designation Coot-A.

The Coot-A was designed from the outset to acquire all types of reconnaissance information, ELINT, COMINT, Optical and Radar intelligence. Mounted under the forward fuselage in a 26ft long pod is the Igla-1 (Needle-1) SLAR. Two A-87P panoramic cameras are mounted in the forward part of the lateral fairings on the front fuselage – the rear part of the fairings contain antennas for the Romb ELINT system. The Kavadrat ELINT system is served by a series of large and small antennas under the rear fuselage. This system is capable of emitter location, radio frequency and power measurement as well as determining pulse duration and transmission cycles. The COMINT suite is known as Vishnya (Cherry tree) and is manned by 8 operators. The flight deck crew usually comprises 5.

Around 20 Il-20M’s were built between 1969-1976 and were deployed around the periphery of the Soviet Union and East Germany. The current status of the aircraft is uncertain, but it is believed that the remaining aircraft are based at Chkalovskaya air base near Moscow.