Last Thursday (29), Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets from the Ejercito del Aire (Spanish Air Force) and F-35A Lighting II of Aeronautica Militare (AMI – Italian Air Force), deployed to Estonia and Lithuania for the Baltic Air Policing Mission, were deployed to intercept Russian aircraft. Among the targets were two rare Ilyushin Il-22PP Porubshchik electronic warfare aircraft, called Mute by NATO.
In addition to the two Il-22s, an Il-76 Candid freighter and a Su-24 Fencer supersonic attack jet were intercepted and escorted by fighter jets from the US-led military alliance. The NATO Combined Air Operations Center, based in Uedem (), alerted fighters in the Baltic after unidentified s were detected in the region, leaving Kaliningrad and flying without a flight plan and with the transponder turned off, posing risks to the air navigation.
"The Alliance's air policing system monitors airspace in Europe 24/7 and responds when aircraft are identified flying without a flight plan or without a transponder signal", said General Karsten Stoye, Chief of Staff, Allied Air Command.
“Air and sea routes in this region are congested with large volumes of civilian traffic transiting through the area, so aircraft that do not follow international air safety regulations pose a potential hazard to civilian traffic,” added Major General Stoye.
NATO also highlighted that at no time did Russian aircraft enter Alliance airspace and that interceptions were routinely carried out.
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According to The Aviationist, this is the first time that Il-22PP Mute planes have been intercepted by Organization fighters. The “electronic escort” aircraft were first sighted in 2017 at the 105th anniversary celebrations of the Russian Air Force in Kubinka. According to Piotr Butowski, the aircraft is a SIGINT (Signals Intelligence) platform and stand-off interference, converted from an Il-22 Coot-B (aircraft command post and radio relay based on the Il-18D aircraft ).
The Il-22PP is equipped with antennas for scanning radio signals in the area of \uXNUMXb\uXNUMXbits activity and selectively blocks those on which enemy aircraft, drones or air defense systems operate. Ironically, because it was “big and white”, the aircraft would be called “Refrigerator” by the Russians.
According to Mikhail Khodorenok, a retired colonel and military analyst for the online newspaper Gazeta.ru, the Il-22PP was born out of a Russian military necessity when other options were not available. “At the same time, a few more options were considered: AN-140 and AN-158 planes with turbojet engines, as well as the Tu-214”, he told the RBTH portal. “However, at the time of the formation of the 'Defense Takeovers' in 2009, none of these models were yet fully ready to be equipped with the latest electronic warfare (EW) systems.”
“Of course, this is not an ideal solution”, he added, explaining why the new weapon was placed in a "old trusty horse". “However, for lack of a better option, a choice had to be made – either go without the EW aircraft, or mount the equipment on the tested wings.”
