NATO on August 18 brought together nearly 25 aircraft near Russia’s Kaliningrad autonomous region, including American and Norwegian fighters, an AWACS aircraft, the rare electronic warfare plane EA-37B Comps Call, and Apache attack helicopters.

On August 18, NATO brought together nearly 25 aircraft near Russia’s Kaliningrad autonomous region, including American and Norwegian fighters, an AWACS aircraft, the rare electronic warfare plane EA-37B Comps Call, and Apache attack helicopters.

The flight group flew routes over the northeastern part of Poland, focusing on the electromagnetic environment around Kaliningrad.

NATO presented the operation as a planned exercise for interaction and deterrence, not as a response to any specific action by Russia.

The operation continued in the following days and, before official confirmation, was first identified by open-source intelligence (OSINT) flight trackers.