German Air Force pilots, assigned to the German Air Force Weapons School, conduct strafing runs with Eurofighter Typhoons in conjunction with U.S. Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controller assigned to 2d Air Support Operations Squadron identifying targets on the ground at the 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany, June 9, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Kevin Sterling Payne via U.S. Defense Visual Information Distribution Service)

BERLIN (Reuters) -Three Russian military aircraft flying without transponder signals have been intercepted in international airspace over the Baltic Sea, Germany's Luftwaffe said on Wednesday.

Germany and Britain sent Eurofighter jets to identify the two Sukhoi Su-27 fighter aircraft and one Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft, the German air force said on Twitter.

It posted several images of the Russian aircraft mid-flight.

Russian military aircraft regularly fly from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad and back, meaning that such encounters are fairly routine in the region.

Germany handed over responsibility for NATO's Baltic air policing mission to Britain earlier this month. NATO allies pitch in to protect the air space there because Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia do not have their own fighter jets.

(Reporting by Friederike Heine and Rachel More, Editing by Andrew Heavens, Madeline Chambers)