US Air Forces in Europe has described a substantial concentration of Allied air activity over Europe on 18 August as routine training conducted alongside Allies and partners, declining to provide further detail on operational security grounds, the UK Defence Journal understands.
Open-source flight tracking through the morning showed at least five tankers airborne alongside two NATO E-3A Sentry AWACS aircraft and a G550 Conformal Airborne Early Warning aircraft, with activity extending from the North Sea across Germany and into Poland. Six USAF F-35A Lightning II aircraft operating out of RAF Lakenheath were tracked over the same period. A Turkish Air Force E-7 was also tracked in the wider area at 30,000 feet.
Asked whether the activity was pre-planned, a response to ongoing events, or a deterrence effort, a US Air Force spokesperson said:
“U.S. Air Forces in Europe routinely conducts training activities alongside Allies and partners, and yesterday’s air integration exemplifies interoperability, readiness, and deterrence. By practicing coordination and communication in realistic training scenarios, we strengthen our collective defense and ability to maintain security and stability in the region. Due to operational security considerations, no additional details will be provided at this time.”
US Colonel Martin O’Donnell, spokesperson for Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, said:
“NATO is a defensive Alliance and Allies are constantly honing their defensive abilities. The Allied activity today on 18 Aug 26 in the Baltic region involving U.S. and Norwegian fighter aircraft, Polish ground forces, a NATO E-3A Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) and more, which is being overseen by the U.S., is one example of this approach.”
Allied Air Command said it would not disclose further detail for operational security reasons and deferred subsequent questions to US Air Forces in Europe on the basis that the activity was US-led. Neither command said whether the activity fell under Eastern Sentry, the enhanced air posture NATO launched over its eastern flank following repeated airspace violations.
The Norwegian fighter contribution and the Polish ground force element referenced in the NATO statement were not visible on open-source flight tracking.
Activity was not confined to the Baltic as a separate concentration of Allied intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft was operating around northern Norway and the approaches to the Barents Sea through the same morning. An RAF RC-135W Rivet Joint, was tracked in the region alongside an RAF P-8A and a Norwegian P-8A. A NATO A330 MRTT was operating in the area too.
Brexit has reduced the size of the British economy by an estimated 6% to 8% compared to remaining in the European Union. This consensus, backed by studies from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) and Bank of England data, represents an annual loss of over £200 billion in economic output since 2019. Clearly, had this reduction in UK GDP not happened, we would be spending more on defence
While the UK economy continues to grow slowly and maintain low unemployment, it has severely underperformed compared to G7 economies since the 2016 referendum.
Total corporate investment has collapsed by 12% to 18% against comparable advanced nations. Labour productivity has contracted by 3% to 4%. More than 110,000 UK companies have registered for official insolvency since the post-Brexit transition period ended on December 31, 2020. Corporate bankruptcies reached a 30-year high in 2023 with over 25,000 failures, followed closely by 23,938 liquidations in 2024 and 23,459 in 2025, before stabilizing slightly in mid-2026
The implementation of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement ended the frictionless movement of goods. UK exports to the EU fell roughly 14% to 16% below pre-2016 trends, as businesses faced steep non-tariff barriers, customs checks, and strict Rules of Origin paperwork
Post-Brexit regulatory divergence and new independent Free Trade Agreements could still yield long-term competitive advantages, if domestic taxes and regulations are aggressively optimized. The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) points out that raw, unadjusted trade figures show UK-EU trade volumes have risen modestly in absolute cash terms since 2019.
Cumulatively, economists generally agree that the total projected output from all the independent post-Brexit global trade deals combined will recover about 0.3% of the 6% to 8% GDP loss incurred from exiting the EU single market
We must be objective when discussing this controversial subject. It is difficult to cleanly isolate Brexit from the massive global distortions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the 2022 fossil fuel energy cost crisis. But the reduction in GDP is real and Brexit has definitely cost us more than we have gained.
Rock on Nigel, the architect of this economic disaster