French Rafale Squadrons Intercepted A Plane Carrying Russian FSB Leadership
1- 18.08.2026, 9:35
- 2,362
The incident occurred over the Baltic Sea.
From April 1 to July 31, 2026, as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, two French Rafale squadrons flew 39 interception missions over the Baltic region, as reported by the French Ministry of Defense.
In particular, the ministry reported that they intercepted an FSB airborne command post. The French aircraft conducted air patrols over Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
It was added that the contingent was also supposed to help monitor Poland’s eastern border due to the risk of unauthorized incursions by drones or missiles.
Its mission was to be on duty during “hot” weeks, when aircraft had to be ready for takeoff in less than 15 minutes, and during “cold” weeks, with a three-hour readiness time.
It is noted that, in addition to performing actual combat duty, the crews participated in training missions with other fighter units deployed in the region, and also underwent training in supporting ground forces and intercepting drones.
It is noted that it was French Rafale C fighters that shot down drones over Latvia and Estonia for the first time, which became a landmark event during this deployment.
It is known that, following the four-month deployment, the French contingent logged a total of 540 flight hours: it carried out 39 intercept missions in response to actual alerts and 69 training missions.
"Military" noted that, judging by the published photographs, during their deployment in the Baltics, French aircraft intercepted a Tu-214PU with tail number RA-64534. According to available data, this is a specialized Russian aircraft based on the Tu-214 medium-range passenger airliner.
There is little publicly available information about it; all that is known is that the Tu-214PU is part of the “Russia” special flight squadron, which provides transportation for Russia’s military and political leadership and representatives of the special services.
It is believed that this aircraft is used by the FSB leadership as an air transport, a secure communications hub, and, likely, an airborne command post.
In a photograph of the aircraft intercepted by a French Rafale fighter jet over the Baltic Sea, aviation expert Petr Butovsky shared information on social media platform X stating that he had identified the LSZ-100 system.
“This is a laser-based electro-optical countermeasure system designed to protect aircraft from missiles with infrared homing heads, primarily those from man-portable air defense systems,” the article states.
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