Ukraine war: Nato watches Russian 'Zombies' in Estonia

Wing Cdr Scott Maccoll says Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has changed the dynamic of his squadron's operations

In a cramped crew room, in a building just next to the runway of the Amari airbase in Estonia, the television is showing old episodes of Friends.

Feet up on the table, coffee mugs in hand, a bit of casual banter crisscrosses the room. On the TV screen, Rachel is just back from the hairdressers, Ross is upset about something. Then an airman pops his head around the doorway and announces calmly: "Zombie heading north out of Kaliningrad."

Instantly people are on their feet and moving next door to the Operations Room, where screens and digital maps marked "Nato Secret" flicker with streams of incoming data.

This is the Quick Reaction Force for Operation Azotize, Nato's Baltic Air Policing mission that guards the alliance's north-east borders where Russian aircraft regularly probe the boundaries of Nato territory.

Since April, the RAF's IX Squadron of Typhoon fighter jets has taken over the mission lead from Germany's historically-named Richthofen Squadron.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has forced the Nato military alliance to focus its efforts on securing its eastern borders. The aim is simple: to deter Russia from invading anywhere else, specifically a Nato country like one of the three Baltic states or Poland.

A Russian fighter jet photographed from a Typhoon performing as part of Nato's Baltic Air Policing mission

"Zombie" is code for a Russian aircraft acting suspiciously.

"That can usually be any one of three things," explains Wing Cdr Scott Maccoll from RAF Lossiemouth in Scotland. "Either it won't have filed a flight plan, or they're not squawking [communicating] or they're simply not responding to Air Traffic Control. Sometimes it's all three."

In this case it turns out to be a false alarm as the Zombie turns north and away from Nato's borders.

Estonia's Amari airbase, where the Typhoons are based, used to be a Cold War Soviet Airforce site, and in the nearby forest there is still a cemetery where Soviet pilots are buried along with the tailplanes of their old MiG-15s and MiG-17s.

Today the mission for these Nato pilots is both complicated and relentless. With Finland now joining Nato, the Baltic Sea is bordered by seven members of the Western alliance, soon to be eight when the way is cleared for Sweden to join.

But Russia still has two strategic footholds in the Baltic: its second city of St Petersburg to the east and its exclave of Kaliningrad, the former Prussian city of Konigsberg and its hinterland, a place now bristling with missiles and other military hardware.

Russian Su-27 Flanker fighters, Airborne Command and Control aircraft and cargo planes all fly continually up and down the Baltic between those two bases and beyond, keeping Nato's air forces constantly on their toes.

"So we could be sat there, feet up on the table, having a cup of coffee, and then the next minute the alarm sounds," says one of the younger Typhoon pilots, who asks not to be named.

"We respond to any alarm as if it's the real deal. So we run to the aircraft, don our kit, get the engines going, strapped in, speak to the [Control] Tower, speak to Operations on the radios, get our clearance and we then we taxi out and get airborne as quick as we can."

Inside the hangars another pilot approaches one of the Typhoons. They're armed and "on state", ready to scramble if needed.

The RAF pilots are ready to take to the air at a moment's notice

Wing Cdr Rich Leask points to a long, sleek missile fixed to the side of the fuselage. "This is the Meteor," he says. "It's been in service operationally since 2018. At the front end it's got its own radar seeker head, at the rear it's got its own propulsion with a Ramjet."

Other, smaller missiles designed for short-range dogfights in the air sit menacingly on the wingtips.

So what actually happens when pilots get up close with these Russian Zombies? Presumably nobody wants to start loosing off missiles and set off World War Three?

"Our role here is to protect Nato airspace," replies Wing Cdr Maccoll, adding cryptically "our Rules of Engagement are classified".

Another pilot is slightly more forthcoming. "We don't know what aircraft we're going to go and intercept. So we pull up alongside, we identify the aircraft and then we get further words, further mission sets from the Ops Centre and we respond to what they tell us to do."

What I do know is that these RAF pilots take a lot of photographs of the Zombies, good ones too, as they come up alongside and escort them past Nato airspace.

"We have conducted eight interception missions," says Wing Cdr Maccoll. "All of those have been against Russian aircraft… We've been doing Baltic air policing for a number of years but there's no doubt that Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine last year has changed the dynamic here."

Things have changed on the ground, too, where there is a new urgency to put in place enough land forces to deter any future Russian incursion.

Soviet pilots are buried along with the tailplanes of their old MiG-15s and MiG-17s in a nearby forest

Estonia's Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who grew up as a child in the Soviet Union, tells me she has no doubt that if President Putin's invasion of Ukraine were to eventually succeed then it would only be a matter of time before he turned his attention to the Baltic states.

As part of Nato's policy of "enhanced forward presence" in those Baltic states and Poland, there is a British-led multinational Battle Group based at Tapa in northern Estonia. Challenger 2 main battle tanks, Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, Wildcat and Apache helicopters and even a Company of French Foreign Legionnaires are all intended to act as a deterrent to any moves by Moscow.

"Nato's challenge here in the Baltics," says Brig Giles Harris, who commands Operation Cabrit, Britain's contribution in Estonia, "is to deter Russia without escalating."

The numbers, though, are tiny compared to the vast forces that Russia can muster across the border in normal times. There has been a reluctant admission that Nato's deterrent force in Estonia would essentially act as a "tripwire", triggering rapid reinforcement while Russian forces advanced westwards.

Does Nato have enough forces in place?

"The Battle Groups [in the Baltics] should be enough of a deterrent," says Brig Harris. "If that fails then we're done.

"If Russia invades, then we go east and fight them."