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U.K. Typhoons to deploy to Romania for air policing mission
A detachment of the Royal Air Force of the UK from the Coningsby air base will be deployed to Romania at Mihail Kogalniceanu military base, from May 1 to August 31, to perform air police missions together with the Romanian Air Forces, informs the Ministry of National Defence (MapN).
According to the source, the British detachment will consist of four Eurofighter aircraft and about 150 soldiers - pilots and technical staff.
The NATO operation will be conducted alongside pilots from Romania's air force. The planes will patrol the skies over the Black Sea, a move U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon says underscores his country's growing support for the alliance quoted by upi.com.
"The U.K. is stepping up its support for NATO's collective defense from the north to the south of the alliance," Fallon said in a press release. "With this deployment, RAF planes will be ready to secure NATO airspace and provide reassurance to our allies in the Black Sea region."
Britain's Royal Air Force 3 Squadron will lead the air policing mission. The U.K. is the first country to supply jets for the operation.
"Distributing RAF aircraft in Romania is part of the implementation of the Plan of action to ensure the operational capacity of NATO's eastern flank of the Alliance both in the north and in the South. Thus, air police missions have been conducted to date simultaneously or by rotation in order to secure the air space of the Baltic countries, Benelux, Iceland and Bulgaria. Air police missions jointly carried out will contribute to the development of the reaction and deterrence capacity and to the interoperability reinforcement between Romanian and the British air forces," specifies MApN.