The Swedish Air Force scrambled two JAS 39 Gripen fighters on April 20, 2026, to identify a formation of two Russian Tu-22M3 long-range bombers and their Su-30M2 fighter escort over the Baltic Sea, in a mission coordinated with NATO allies that ended with a Danish F-35A handover near Bornholm.
According to the Swedish Air Force, JAS 39 Gripen fighters were scrambled to identify and escort two Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers accompanied by fighter jets near the island of Gotland.
The formation was detected northeast of Gotland at around 10:00 local time, according to Jonas Bäsk,Duty Communications Officer for the Swedish Armed Forces, who told SVT that the aircraft originated in the Gulf of Finland, continued toward Bornholm, then turned back along the same route. According to Försvarsmakten, the bombers did not enter Swedish airspace at any point and remained over international waters throughout the transit.
Swedish QRA fighter jets intercepted two Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers over the Baltic Sea today. The bombers were escorted by two Russian fighter jets, and the interception was coordinated with NATO allies. 📸 Swedish Air Force pic.twitter.com/lI2zek0nM4
— Flygvapnet (@flygvapnet) April 20, 2026
The Russian flight group consisted of four aircraft in total, with the two Tu-22M3 bombers flanked by two Russian fighters. Images released in connection with the intercept show the Russian bomber formation was escorted by Su-30M2 fighters. The same imagery also shows at least one of the Tu-22M3 bombers carrying a live Kh-32 cruise missile under the fuselage, indicating the sortie was flown with an armed maritime-strike loadout.
Handover to Danish F-35s near Bornholm
Today, two Tu-22M3 from Soltsy Air Base, escorted by two Su-35S, conducted a 4-hour training flight over the Baltic Sea and approached Danish airspace.
In the area of the island of Bornholm, the group was intercepted by a scrambled pair of Royal Danish Air Force F-35A from Skrydstrup Air Base.
— AviVector (@avivector.com) April 20, 2026 at 9:00 PM
As the Russian formation continued south toward the Danish area of responsibility around Bornholm, Royal Danish Air Force F-35A fighters took over the tracking mission, according to the Swedish Air Force.
The Danish F-35A fleet assumed primary responsibility for Denmark’s national Quick Reaction Alert duties in 2025, as the type replaces the F-16 at Fighter Wing Skrydstrup.
Sweden joined NATO in March 2024 and has progressively integrated its Gripen fleet into Alliance air policing structures, with forward deployments to Malbork in Poland in April 2025 and a first-ever Swedish-led NATO Icelandic Air Policing rotation from Keflavík earlier in January 2026.
Moscow describes the mission as a planned flight
On the Russian side, the Ministry of Defense confirmed that long-range Tu-22M3 bombers of the Russian Aerospace Forces conducted a planned flight over the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The sortie reportedly lasted around four hours.
Moscow routinely frames such missions as scheduled long-range aviation sorties conducted in accordance with international rules on the use of airspace.
The Tu-22M3, known to NATO as Backfire, is a supersonic long-range bomber designed for maritime strike missions and is typically armed with Kh-22 or Kh-32 anti-ship cruise missiles. Its operational radius of roughly 2,400 kilometers comfortably covers the Baltic Sea theatre from Russian bases on the Kola Peninsula.
Though seen less frequently than the Il-20 observation aircraft that regularly operate over the Baltic region, Tu-22M3 bombers were last reported there on January 22, 2026.
