Spanish EF-18Ms intercept Russian fighter jets armed with missiles and cluster bombs

The Vilkas Detachment of the Spanish Air Force in Lithuania continues to receive Alpha Scramble alerts to intercept Russian aircraft.

Spanish aviators from Wing 11 bid farewell to Lithuania by placing a cross in Šiauliai
Wave of interceptions of Russian aircraft by Spanish fighters in Lithuania

At the end of November, ten EF-18M fighter jets from Wing 15 relieved the ten Eurofighters from Wing 11 deployed at Šiauliai Air Base in northern Lithuania. This marks the first time Spain has undertaken two consecutive rotations in NATO's Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission, due to the increase in Russian incursions into Polish and Baltic territory in recent months.

These incursions are a further escalation of provocations that have been repeated for years with flights of Russian military aircraft near allied airspace on their routes between the St. Petersburg area and the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad, violating international aviation rules by not communicating their flight plan to air traffic control centers and having their transponders turned off, forcing allied planes on BAP missions to take off to identify these aircraft and determine if they are a threat.

Today, at 2:02 PM CET, the Spanish Joint Chiefs of Staff (EMAD) reported: "F-18M fighter jets from Wing 15, deployed in Lithuania as part of the #DAT Vilkas detachment, intercepted Russian Air Force fighter jets flying in international waters, close to allied airspace. The Spanish fighters identified the aircraft and escorted them until they entered their airspace. The F-18s then returned to their air base in Šiauliai without incident."

The EMAD (Spanish Joint Chiefs of Staff) has published four photos along with that statement. One of them (above) shows a pilot and two ground crew members from Wing 15 hurrying out of one of the buildings at Šiauliai Air Base towards the hangar of one of the Spanish fighter jets. In the next photo, we see a Spanish EF-18M in its hangar armed with two AIM-2000 IRIS-T medium-range air-to-air missiles mounted on wingtip pylons, two AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-to-long-range air-to-air missiles on fuselage pylons, and two external fuel tanks on underwing pylons. The pilot is already in the cockpit, and we see on the right the ground crew who have removed the wheel chocks from the aircraft, so it is now ready to begin its taxiing before takeoff.

Furthermore, the EMAD has published two photos of one of the intercepted Russian fighters, the Su-30SM 81 Blue RF-81885. Although the EMAD referred to the Russian Air Force, as can be seen from the Cyrillic inscription on its tail fin, this fighter belongs to the Naval Aviation of the Russian Navy.

In the photos, we can clearly see that this Russian fighter jet was armed with two Kh-31 Krypton air-to-surface missiles, one on each of the inboard underwing pylons. It is a supersonic missile with different variants. The Kh-31A is an anti-ship missile, and the Kh-31P is an anti-radar missile. What we see in the photo appears to be the anti-radar version.

In addition, the Russian fighter jet was carrying two 500 kg RBK-500 cluster bombs on its ventral pylons. This type of bomb deploys small submunitions before reaching its target, and can be used against runways or armored forces, although Russia is also using this type of bomb against civilian targets in Ukraine, one of the numerous war crimes the Russians are committing in that invasion.

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Photos: Estado Mayor de la Defensa.