Finland Times

Finnish Hornet jets were to be joined by American FF-16 fighter jets from their Ämari base in Estonia for an exercise in a training zone near Pori.

Meanwhile, Swedish and NATO jets on Tuesday tracked Russian bombers flying in international space over the Baltic Sea.

The jets tracked two Russian Tu-95 bombers and Su-27 fighter jets.

The Russian planes’ transponders that enable an aircraft to be located were switched off.

“The threat level towards Sweden has not increased, but the Swedish Armed Forces tracked, as always, the increased activity in our neighbourhood,” read a statement from the Swedish Air Force.

The Baltic news agency BNS reported that the planes took off from Kaliningrad region of Russia.

Commenting on the issue, a Finnish aerial warfare expert, Pasi Tammi, told the news agency STT that he does not believe the sighting of Russian bombers has anything to do with the joint exercise.

If Russia wanted to monitor the Finland-US joint exercise, it would have been natural for Russia to send reconnaissance aircraft instead of the bombers.