NATO fighter scrambles on the rise in response to growing Russian air activity

[Zarvan]

The air picture of northern Europe as seen from the NATO Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem, Germany. Source: NATO

NATO has recorded a sharp rise in Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) scrambles over the past year as the increase in Russian aircraft movements in the Baltic region has been swelled by a similar upswing in the Black Sea region and by President Vladimir Putin's intervention in Syria, Jane's was told on 22 March.

Speaking in Uedem in northern Germany, at the site of one of NATO's two Combined Air Operations Centres (CAOCs), Lieutenant Colonel Bernhard M (whose surname has been withheld for security reasons), the Senior Operations Officer at the Static Air Defence Centre (SADC), said that, while a change in the way that NATO records such events will have accounted for some of this increase, there was an aggregate doubling of 'Alpha' (Air Policing) scrambles in 2016 compared to earlier years.

"The challenges for us are produced almost in all cases by the Russian Aerospace Forces [VKS]," Lt Col M noted, adding that while communications losses with civilian aircraft sometimes result in an 'Alpha' scramble, in the Baltic and Kola Peninsula region in the far northwest of Russia it is the VKS that is driving the alliance's workload.

In 2014 there were 480 'Alpha' scrambles for NATO European QRA aircraft, of which 400 involved Russian military aircraft. In 2015 there was the same number, while in 2016 there were 807 'Alpha' scrambles across both CAOCs, of which 780 involved Russian military aircraft.

One reason for the sharp rise in 2016 was that NATO decided to include Turkish Alpha scrambles along the Turkish border to Syria for the first time; these had previously been conducted at a national rather than a NATO level. Overall though, there has been a marked increase in Russian military air activity being monitored and responded to across both the CAOCs.

This substantive increase in Russian military air activity is being observed and managed through the two CAOCs at Uedem in Germany covering northern Europe above the Alps, and at Torrejon in Spain for southern Europe below the Alps (including the Black Sea and the Mediterranean).

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[Fledgingwings]

Rising tension in the region

 

[Lagay Raho]

Wish i could watch a full fledged conflict from a different planet