NATO Eurofighter jets have flown over Finland’s Russian border for the first time since the Nordic country joined the alliance, it has been reported.
During a military exercise, three planes from Germany’s 71st Tactical Squadron landed and took off from the road near the village of Hosio, about 190 kilometers from Finland’s border with Russia, Bild reported, citing the German air force.
“After refueling, they took off again and returned to the Rovaniemi air base,” an air force spokesman told the newspaper, referring to the Lapland Air Command headquarters. Given the proximity to the border, Bild journalist Julian Röpke said it was possible that Russian radars were closely monitoring the exercises.
Thomas Lohnes/Getty Images
On September 4, two U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II aircraft assigned to the 48th Fighter Wing, Royal Air Force Lakenheath, United Kingdom, also landed on a Finnish highway near Hosio during Exercise BAANA 2024, The Aviationist reported. The Finnish Air Force posted a video on X, formerly Twitter, showing an aircraft hovering on the road.
The English-language website BulgarianMilitary.com pointed out that landing on a highway was “a new capability” that now put these European fighters “in the same category as the F-35, Gripen and F/A-18 aircraft.”
The publication states that a Eurofighter landed for the first time on a Finnish road on September 4 at Baana and describes how this gave a substantial tactical advantage, particularly given that airbases are primary targets during hostilities.
This also means that aircraft can be placed in many locations over large areas, making them harder to detect and destroy and increasing the chances of air superiority even if major air bases are compromised.
Newsweek contacted the German Air Force, the Finnish Foreign Ministry and NATO for comment.
After decades of non-alignment with NATO, Finland angered Moscow when it joined the alliance in 2023, due to regional security concerns raised by Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Helsinki has accused Moscow of deliberately stoking the migration crisis by sending asylum seekers from African and Middle Eastern countries to the border as part of a “hybrid warfare” tactic. Russia has denied the accusations.
Russia has also been accused of jamming Global Positioning System (GPS) signals, which has impacted flight paths in Eastern Europe, particularly around the Baltic states.
Latvia fears that NATO airspace will be violated during the war started by Putin. A Russian military drone arrived from Belarus and crashed on its territory in the municipality of Rezekne. “A Russian military drone crashed yesterday in the eastern part of Latvia,” Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said on Sunday on X.
“We are in close contact with our allies,” he added. “The number of such incidents is increasing on NATO’s eastern flank and we must address them collectively.”
