Tri-Service

Typhoon: Intercept

In 2014 alone, NATO fighter jets were forced to intercept foreign aircraft over Europe 500 times.

That's four times more than in the previous year - and nearly 85% were to intercept Russian aircraft.

As tensions between Russia and the West increase, there's already been 300 scrambles so far this year - including from the RAF.

And we saw this week how quickly these situations can lead to tragedy, after a Russian pilot was killed after reportedly briefly straying into Turkish airspace en route to Syria.

NATO, meanwhile has been patrolling Baltic airspace since 2004, when Estonia, Latvia and Lithunia, who don't have their own air defence fighters, joined the alliance.

The Baltic Air Policing Mission was then stepped up in 2014 due to Russian involvement in the Ukraine crisis.

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