Overview

• NATO said two F-35s from its Quick Reaction Alert at Evenes identified a Russian IL-20 reconnaissance aircraft in international airspace north of Finnmark.
• The interception was the first live mission directed by the newly established Combined Air Operations Centre in Bodø.
• The IL-20 is an electronic intelligence platform used for surveillance, and European fighters have recently scrambled to its flights over the Baltic.
• The action comes as officials track a wider pattern of suspicious aerial activity, with The Times logging 54 sightings since the September drone incursion into Poland.
• Allies have expanded air policing through Operation Eastern Sentry and are weighing looser rules for countering drones, while Moscow has not commented on this flight and rejects allegations of wrongdoing.