This time the Russian aircraft turned out to be an Il-18 (NATO code name Coot) reconnaissance aircraft. The plane flew in international airspace northwest of Finnmark county, TV2 reports.
Although there has been much publicity about Russian air activity close to Nordic countries lately, culminating in Russia’s ambassadors to Denmark and Sweden being summoned to hear complaints that lives were endangered in a near-miss involving an airliner and a Russian military aircraft, Norway reports that the number of Russian aircraft outside Norwegian territory is on the same level as previous years.
See photos of Russian aircraft taken by Norway’s Armed Forces on NRK.
“The situation in the High North is close to normal compared to the activity the last years,” says Head of the Joint Command Headquarters General Lieutenant Morten Haga Lunde to the Armed Forces’ web site. “This is in spite of the tense situation that has evolved between Russia and NATO.”
The last couple of months NATO aircraft have been scrambled more than 1oo times to identify Russian aircraft, but a lot of this activity has taken place in other areas of operation than the Arctic, mainly in the Baltics.
According to official numbers from the Norwegian Joint Command Headquarters, by December 3 there had been 43 scrambles and 69 identifications in international air space outside the coast of Norway.
In 2013 there were 41 scrambles and 58 identifications, and in 2012 41 scrambles and 71 identifications. The numbers are considerable lower than during the 1980ies, when there could be as many as 500-600 identifications per year.
