German Air Force Eurofighter detachment presently deployed to Estonia for NATO’s enhanced Air Policing mission are hosting two Royal Air Force Typhoons to fly combined training missions, say NATO.
“When we deploy our fighter aircraft to the Baltic Allies, our RAF colleagues and we have the same mission under NATO Air Policing. Therefore, we want to exploit this training week to operate our fighters in a combined manner to further reinforce our interoperability,” said the Lieutenant Colonel Sebastian Fiedler, Commander of the German Eurofighter detachment at Ämari in an interview.
The British-German Combined Air Policing project has so far gone through three phases, say NATO.
During a first step, in May 2019, when German Eurofighters handed the mission in Estonia over to their RAF colleagues, first combined missions were flown with the German in the lead. At the time, both Allies identified additional steps to deepen their cooperation. Building on this foundation, the RAF then hosted a small 35-strong German detachment with two Eurofighter jets in Šiauliai, Lithuania, during the Baltic Air Policing mission in July 2020; the German detachment was integrated with the RAF Typhoons under the so-called plug & fight concept, again flying combined missions and further expanding the cooperation of the detachments.
Why are the Germans only deploying two jets? Are their poor servicibility levels the real reason that they require RAF support? Maybe I’m too cynical…
2 operational jets is a lot for Germany now days. lol
Have I missed something Dan ??? 2 German and 2 Crab Air ??? What’s the problem. I’m genuinely curious, I don’t get the issue here.
I think it’s just the normal germanophobia on this website rearing its head again.
Or any nations armed forces which are not the mighty military of the USA, which will be looked down on. Some American posters are known for that here, Dan at least can be supportive, sometimes.
Cheers Dern and Daniele, glad I’ve not gone senile just yet. Wondered if there was something a little deeper that I’d missed. Sadly it looks like I should have ‘gone low’ and just assumed it was a cheap shot.:-(
Thanks Daniele 🙂
I just get frustrated with Merkel and her never ending underfunding of the German military. The brave Germans that serve deserve better. I continue to hope that one day this trend will reverse….
Based on 2019 figures,if Germany spent the NATO Standard 2% of GDP on Defence,that equates to £58 billion,,compare that to our Budget,what exactly could they spend it on without claims of being too Militaristic ?.
I don’t think that they are scared of the Germans.
In the generic sense that -phobia is used?
Yes they are.
I’m not a germanophobia(is that really a word?) in any way. I have a great deal of respect for the German people not to mention how the German people that came to America help build this great country. What I do take issue with is Merkel and her gang of misfits continuing to leech off America and Britain for their own defense. Just look at the state of their Navy. Most if not all their subs are docked because they don’t have enough money to fix or man them. Their surface ships number so few and most never leave port.… Read more »
You’d be Germanophobic, not “a germanophobia.”
…and yes you are. That little list of mostly invented greivences (how can a country that’s in the top 10 in terms of global military expenditure, and is often listed as spending more than the UK on defence, be leaching of the UK please?) proves the point.
Dern, With some exceptions most people on this site are critical of most countries including (and sometimes especially) their own. There is a general feeling that all NATO countries should be contributing more. I am not sure there is any reason why Germany should be excluded. Germany are part of an alliance and any weakness in any part of the alliance or it’s equipment (or lack of it) may well cost lives. I don’t think the Germans are being singled our in any way and am puzzled as to why you might think that.
Funny, I don’t see comments about Spain, or Iceland (for example) “freeloading” off the UK in regards to defence expenditure. Yet every post about the Bundeswehr in any form always has multiple posts saying something along the lines of “Oh 2 fighters is all they can manage, they should stop getting us to pay for their defence.”
I strongly disagree with your statement, and restate, conscious or not, there is a strong anti-german bias with some commentators on this site.
Spain does get mentioned on a regular basis mainly in relation to Gibraltar and not always in the kindest way. Iceland has been mentioned over the 2% but normally commentators point out that Iceland’s main contribution is it’s geographic position and the strategic advantage it gives NATO. Every country get criticised if they don’t contribute the 2% but there is an issue with Germany in that it is financially strong and should be providing the same if not more muscle than France and the UK. Also commentators expect that muscle to work. If the criticisms are wrong then challenge them… Read more »
Not to the same extend Grmany does. Spain spends less than 1% of GDP but gets considerably less grief than Germany for “freeloading” again Iceland doesnt get blasted for literally freeloadjng, nor does Canada (also spends less of %GDP than germany)
Why is germany singled out out of all these countries, and yet you get fourth Reich comments the moment someone mentions the idea of Germany investing in an aircraft carrier? Doesnt take an archbishop to work out.
I haven’t seen any such comments – I personally would expect anything like that would be removed from this site and would be the first to criticise such comments. Personally I feel the modern Germany has nothing in common with that of the 1930s and it surprises me when the subject comes up as often as it does in discussion with my German friends. The UK has at some point been at war with most of our allies but what matters now is the war we are currently fighting to deter aggression and maintain the relative peace we have enjoyed… Read more »
Beyond the obvious benefits of “interoperability”, I do wonder why RAF/Luftwaffe would combine for such small deployments. RAF provides BAP once every 18 month or 2 years or so and perhaps Luftwaffe the same. So are we saying that both countries will deploy more often but in a joint effort? What are the benefits of that?
Good to see, the RAF and Luftwaffe together.
Do we have any joint typhoon development projects with the Germans, or does each nation develop the platform separately?
There are strong synergies, though different countries lead for their own priorities. Eg, centurion enhancements were led by UK, Tranche 1 upgrade by Spain and “Tranche 4” developments by Germany. All countries seem to look at what the others are doing and incorporate bits of it later based on need and budget. Overall, I think fleets are diverging somewhat though.
Thanks for the feedback.
Are our priorities for typhoon that different than the Germans? It seems we could say a bit of cash by working together, especially as the German’s will have the most modern/largest typhoon fleet Soon
not in the long term, no. UK focussed on air defence for its Typhoons for the first 6-7 years, then gradually started developing strike/attack capabilities and brought that to maturity with centurion in 2019. Now it is upgrading the AD capabilities on T2/3 by adding meteor and later AESA. The germans however have only had to worry about AD, but now Typhoon is replacing Tornado, the germans also need to turn it to strike/attack. Fortunately, UK has already developed and proven Typhoon in this role, albeit with some different weapons the germans may or may not choose to use. The… Read more »
Thanks Julian For the explanation