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F-16AM jets from the Portuguese Air Force intercepted a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 military transport aircraft last Monday while it was flying near NATO airspace over the Baltic Sea, marking the first emergency deployment of the Portuguese detachment since taking on the Alliance's Enhanced Air Policing mission.
The NATO Air Command announced the incident on Tuesday via its official account on X.
"Yesterday, Portuguese F-16s took off urgently to identify a Russian Ilyushin Il-76 Candid flying near NATO airspace. This marked the first Alpha Scramble of the Portuguese detachment since they took on the Enhanced Air Policing mission at Ämari Air Base in Estonia, relieving the Italian Air Force," the tweet details.
The Portuguese contingent, made up of four F-16AM fighter jets and approximately 95 military personnel, took over from the Italians—who were operating Eurofighter Typhoon jets—on April 1st and is assigned to this mission until July 31st.
The intercepted aircraft, an Ilyushin Il-76TD -designated "Candid" by NATO-, is the main strategic transport of the Russian Armed Forces: it can carry up to 60 tons or transport 128 paratroopers, reaches speeds of 900 km/h, and has an operational range of 5,000 kilometers.
According to the images released by NATO, the Russian aircraft displayed the flag of the Russian Federation on its fuselage and was escorted by Portuguese fighters, with no reported violation of Allied airspace.
An Alpha Scramble is the NATO procedure that orders the urgent launch of armed fighters equipped with live air-to-air missiles to identify unidentified or potentially hostile aircraft; pilots must be airborne within a maximum of 15 minutes from the order.
This is Portugal's ninth participation in NATO's Baltic missions and the second from the Ämari base, located in Estonia, one of the three Baltic countries that do not have their own combat aviation and whose airspace the Alliance has been protecting permanently since 2004.
The incident occurs in the context of increasing aerial tension in the region. On March 18, a Russian Su-30SM fighter jet violated Estonian airspace near Vaindloo Island in the Gulf of Finland, remaining unauthorized and without a flight plan for approximately one minute.
On that occasion, the Italian Eurofighter Typhoon jets -still operational in Ämari- responded to the incursion, and Estonia summoned the Russian chargé d'affaires to deliver a formal diplomatic note of protest.
Russian activity in the Baltic intensified throughout the week. On the very Wednesday when NATO announced the Portuguese interception, French Rafale fighters deployed at the Šiauliai base also carried out their first interception since taking on the Baltic Air Policing mission at that base.
NATO recorded more than 500 scrambles in allied airspace during 2025, a figure that was only surpassed by the historical peak of 570 interceptions recorded in 2022, following the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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