NATO intercepts of Russian aircraft are at the highest point since the Cold War

More NATO fighter jets responded to intercept Russian military aircraft nearing allied airspace in 2016 than in any year since the Cold War, reports the Independent.

Amid growing tension between Russia and the U.S. with its NATO allies, roughly 780 incidents occurred in 2016 in which NATO jets were deployed from European air bases to intercept Russian aircraft. With an average of over two incidents per day, Russian long range bombers capable of delivering nuclear weapons have been involved in many of the intercepts.

In comparison, 410 intercept dispatches occurred in 2015.

While the Russian aircraft are not known to have violated any nation’s airspace nor violated international regulations, they are flying into "identification zones" in international airspace that are monitored for security purposes.

The standard response when these incidents occur is to dispatch fighter jets from the nearest country to intercept the Russian aircraft, visual identifying it and often flying alongside until it leaves the identification zone.

An additional 90 intercept incidents occurred in 2016 when allied jets responded to non-Russian places, mainly consisting of commercial jets that lost contact with air traffic controllers, according to officials at Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the home of U.S. Air Forces Europe.

While the number of incidents in 2016 did increase from the previous year by over 90 percent, officials at Ramstein partially attribute this to the Turkish Air Force increasing its operations under NATO command, intercepting Russian jets along the border with Syria.