According to information published by the Swedish MoD on March 3, 2022, four Russian fighter aircraft violated Swedish airspace. The Swedish air force conducted an operation with JAS 39 Gripen aircraft of the rapid readiness unit, which documented and photographed the incident.
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Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft (Picture source: Tass)
The Swedish airspace was violated by two Russian Sukhoi Su-27 and two Russian Sukhoi Su-24. The incident was brief and took place east of Gotland, out at sea.
Gotland is Sweden's largest island. It occupies a strategic location in the Baltic sea from a defense viewpoint. The Swedish government decided in March 2015, to begin reestablishing a permanent military presence on Gotland, starting with an initial 150 troop garrison, consisting primarily of elements from the Swedish Army.
The Sukhoi Su-27 (Flanker) is a Soviet-origin twin-engine supermaneuverable fighter aircraft designed by Sukhoi. The Su-27's basic design is aerodynamically similar to the MiG-29, but it is substantially larger.
The wing blends into the fuselage at the leading edge extensions and is essentially a cross between a swept wing and a cropped delta (the delta wing with tips cropped for missile rails or ECM pods). The fighter is also an example of a tailed delta wing configuration, retaining conventional horizontal tailplanes.
The Su-27 is equipped with a Phazotron N001 Myech coherent Pulse-Doppler radar with the track while scan and look-down/shoot-down capability. The fighter also has an OLS-27 infrared search and track (IRST) system in the nose just forward of the cockpit with an 80–100 km (50–62 mi) range.
The Su-27 is armed with a single 30 mm (1.18 in) Gryazev-Shipunov GSh-30-1 cannon in the starboard wing root, and has up to 10 hardpoints for missiles and other weapons. Its standard missile armament for air-to-air combat is a mixture of R-73 (AA-11 Archer) and R-27 (AA-10 'Alamo') missiles, the latter including extended range and infrared homing models.
