The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) scrambled its fighter jets over 400 times in Europe in 2020, chiefly to intercept approaching Russian military planes, the defense alliance said Dec. 28. About 350 of these missions were in response to Russian military aircraft, NATO said in a statement. While that represents a “moderate” increase compared to 2019, it comes amid Russia’s growing military activity near the NATO perimeter. “In recent years, we have seen an increased level of Russian military air activity close to the alliance’s borders,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said in a statement. One of the potential dangers posed by unannounced Russian military planes is to passenger jets flying in the vicinity. “Russian military aircraft often do not transmit a transponder code indicating their position and altitude, do not file a flight plan, or do not communicate with air traffic controllers, posing a potential risk to civilian airliners,” the …