Romania – the Eastern Flank
Enhanced air policing missions in Romania
Agenția Media a Armatei, 31.01.2024, 14:00
Four F-16 jet fighters plus one 80-strong Turkish detachment have been carrying out enhanced air policing missions in Romanias airspace for more than two months now. They arrived in Romania in late November and on December 5th they got NATO certification for carrying out air policing missions in Romania. Since then they have carried out numerous flights and training missions jointly with their Romanian counterparts on F-16 planes and for a short period of time with the German Eurofighters deployed to Air Base 57 in Mihail Kogalniceanu, south-eastern Romania, in December.
The Turkish servicemen, who have been stationed at Air Base 86, “Lieutenant Aviator Gheorghe Mociorniţă” in Borcea (south-eastern Romania), are for the first time in Romania to carry out enhanced air policing missions. However, suchlike missions arent their first, because they have already carried out similar operations in Lithuania and Poland.
“Shortly after we had landed we were getting ready for mission. We got battle-ready in 15 minutes, ready to start air policing missions. We are here to protect the airspace against any military or civilian aircraft that might violate international flight rules. We are ready 24/7 to intervene against any aggression but we havent encountered any yet, so weve had only training missions, alert simulations, the so-called “Tango Scramble” to maintain the response capability at a higher level permanently, Major Unsal, one of the Turkish Air Force pilots stationed in Borcea, told Euronews. When not training the Turkish pilots are enjoying their stay in Romania. “The food is very good. I can say that I like very much the gulas and shaworma here; they are very similar to the traditional food in Turkey. There are lots of historical sites and we are glad we have been here and can see them,” Major Unsal went on to say.
Both the Romanian servicemen and the allies who have done air policing in Romania have carried out scores of real interception missions. War planes also took off whenever Russian drones flew over Romanias airspace on their way to hit the Ukrainian ports on the Danube. The last incident of this kind was in December. Out of the four Turkish F-16 fighter jets deployed to Borcea, one is with double command, which could be linked to the recent opening here of the European Training Center for F-16.
The first two months of mission, out of the four initially envisaged, have ended and last week saw the rotation of the Turkish Air Force detachment on mission in Romania.
Four F-16 fighters and 73 servicemen belonging to the Turkish Air Force, which are to ensure the second rotation of the mission of the detachment stationed in Romania, arrived at Airbase 86 in Borcea on January 25. Their mission in Romania will end in March. A detachment of Eurofighters from Britain is expected to arrive at Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase in March also for enhanced air policing missions.
From January 27th until February 4, the US 82 airborne division jointly with the Romanian allies is carrying out joint drills including transport of military gear and equipment by means of both the military helicopters and ground facilities. The drill is covering a large area, the air corridor between the Mihail Kogalniceanu airbase and the main training range in Cincu, in the county of Brasov, central Romania.
(bill)
