Nearly 780 times NATO aircraft took off to monitor Russian fighter jets

Nearly 780 NATO fighter jets were scrambled in Europe in 2016 to identify and track Russian aircraft.

NATO fighter jets.

According to a statement from the representative of NATO's air base in Ramstein (Germany), it was the largest number of take-offs since the end of the Cold War,

In 2015, the total number of sorties by NATO fighter jets was 410, he added in an interview published in Dpa on Saturday.

According to the representative of the Alliance, the increase in the number of sorties of NATO aircraft is related to the significant deterioration of the security situation in the Middle East and the involvement of the Russian military in the Syrian conflict, which prompted the NATO military command to allow more Turkish aircraft to take off in 2016.

According to the Alliance's spokesman, alert take-offs not linked to Russian aircraft in Europe are relatively rare, with only 90 in the previous year, related to the identification and observation of military aircraft of other foreign countries, or due to the lack of immediate recognition of civil and cargo aircraft.

According to Sputnik