Fighter jets from two NATO countries intercepted several Russian military aircraft on Thursday in a “first” for joint activity between Finland and Sweden, the nations’ armed forces said.
Finnish and Swedish fighter jets were scrambled after a “detachment” of Russian aircraft was detected in international airspace over the Gulf of Finland, Helsinki said in a statement.
“This was the first joint operational identification mission [for] our air forces,” according to the Swedish military.
Finland and Sweden are NATO’s newest members, and ended decades of non-alignment by joining the alliance shortly after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A Swedish Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighter aircraft takes off from Kallinge in southern Sweden on April 2, 2011.
NATO then upped its air policing missions across Eastern Europe, and frequently says it intercepts Russian military aircraft traveling in international airspace near NATO nations.
While it is not unusual for military aircraft to skirt near to the airspace of other countries, Russia sending aircraft close to NATO’s borders is generally seen as an intimidation tactic.
The alliance said last month its fighter jets were scrambled more than twice as often in July 2026 as during the same month last year. In the first half 2026 alone, NATO member Norway deployed fighter jets 62 times in response to Russian flights on NATO’s northeastern flank, Newsweek reported in July.
The Finnish military said it scrambled F/A-18 Hornet aircraft on Thursday and an unspecified number of Swedish Gripen fighter jets also took to the skies.
“This is what close cooperation looks like in practice,” said Major General Jonas Wikman, the commander of Sweden’s air force.
Russia’s Defense Ministry has been contacted for comment via email.
NATO officials have warned for years Russia could be planning operations against NATO members, despite a clause in the alliance’s founding treaty that says all members of the alliance must treat an assault on one as an attack on all.
A large-scale military onslaught on NATO is extremely unlikely. But a small, probing land grab against the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, or Poland, is generally seen as the realistic worst-case scenario.
A Finnish Air Force F-18 prepares to take off from Orland Air Base in Norway during an exercise on August 23, 2023.
However, the more possibility is real, unnamed U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal last month. Unnamed sources told the newspaper Washington now assesses Russia could launch a “limited” attack on NATO’s eastern European edge as soon as this fall.
Weeks after this report emerged, CIA chief John Ratcliffe made a surprise visit to Moscow and reportedly warned top Kremlin officials not to up the long-running hybrid warfare campaign against NATO allies, particularly against the three Baltic states.
“Hybrid attacks” is a catch-all term for operations that stop short of open fighting, like cyberattacks, information campaigns, arson incidents or the targeting of vulnerable infrastructure, such as undersea cables. NATO says Russia has been waging a hybrid war with the alliance for years.
Russia has repeatedly denied planning to attack NATO territory, and dismissed the claims as “nonsense.” Moscow also denied planning to invade Ukraine in the months leading up to the start of the all-out war in early 2022.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Tobias Meyjes and Tony Phillips.
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