Russia is increasingly harassing NATO aircraft near Polish air space.
“The current situation brings more tension—more risk—and it’s definitely more serious for the whole NATO community,” Polish Chief of the Air Force Directorate Brig. Gen. Ireneusz Nowak said via videoconference.
Nowak said Russian Su-35s, Su-27s, and MiG-29s from Belarus have approached Polish air space multiple times since the invasion of Ukraine.
“It’s a rather frequent situation,” Nowak said. “Fighters are scrambled twice or three times from the [quick reaction alert] typically in 24 hours, so that’s a lot.”
Nowak said Russia is keeping its airborne early warning and control aircraft, the Beriev A-50, airborne at all times. Russian air defense systems also track NATO aircraft.
Even with the NATO plus-up on aircraft, Russia is testing the air space and the NATO response time. “They harass us,” Nowak said. “They force us to scramble, and they force us to intercept them.”
Poland keeps four quick reaction alert aircraft—two MiG-29s and two F-16s—ready for air policing.
Polish skies border the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the Baltic Sea to the north and Belarus to the east. Poland also has a border with Ukraine to its southeast, but Russian jets battling Ukraine have yet to venture so close to NATO airspace, choosing instead to fire cruise and hypersonic missiles from Russian territory at Ukrainian targets near the Polish border.
