Portuguese Air Force F-16M fighters scrambled from Ämari Air Base in Estonia to intercept and escort a Russian Su-35 and An-12 aircraft, NATO Air Command announced on 6 May, marking the detachment’s sixth interception since 1 April under NATO enhanced Air Policing 2026.
Ämari Air Base has served as one of the primary hubs for NATO’s enhanced Air Policing mission in the Baltic region since the mission was significantly reinforced following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and further expanded after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The base hosts rotating detachments of allied fighter aircraft tasked with policing the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, none of which operate fast jets of their own.
Portugal’s F-16M is a mid-life upgraded variant of the Fighting Falcon, equipped with improved avionics and sensors that make it a capable platform for the air policing role.
The An-12 Cub is a Soviet-era four-engine turboprop transport aircraft that remains in Russian military service in various configurations including electronic intelligence gathering. Its appearance alongside a Su-35 escort is consistent with patterns of Russian military activity observed regularly in the Baltic region, where Moscow routinely flies aircraft close to or through airspace adjacent to NATO member states, often without filing flight plans or making radio contact with civilian air traffic control.
Is there and F-16M? Surely its an F-16AM and don’t call me Surely.
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There were actually 4 aircraft, unless the F16 pilot has a very long arm and a window open!