Late yesterday evening, the Royal Air Force deployed Typhoon fighter jets and a Voyager tanker from RAF Coningsby to conduct air defence patrols over eastern Poland, in direct response to mounting Russian airspace violations along NATO’s eastern flank.
The mission, carried out under NATO’s new Eastern Sentry activity, saw British jets launch from Lincolnshire at short notice before flying eastward into Polish airspace. According to tracking services, the Typhoons completed several hours of patrols before returning to the UK in the early hours of this morning.
The deployment comes after three Russian MiG-31 fighters breached Estonian airspace on Friday in what Tallinn described as an “unprecedentedly brazen” incursion. Earlier this month, Russian drones also crossed into Poland and Romania, prompting Warsaw to invoke Article 4 of the NATO Treaty and triggering alliance consultations.
Eastern Sentry was activated last week following Poland’s request for support. It involves a multi-national package of aircraft and forces positioned to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank, with Germany, Denmark, France and the United States already contributing. The UK pledged to send Typhoons and Voyagers as part of its response.
By conducting last night’s sortie, Britain has underlined its role as one of NATO’s frontline contributors. The flights also signal London’s intent to meet Russian testing of allied airspace with immediate military presence.
Moscow has repeatedly dismissed NATO’s concerns and accused the alliance of “escalating tensions.”
The Ministry of Defence has not yet released official details of the sortie, but the deployment fits a wider pattern of rapid reinforcement across the eastern flank. NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, Gen. Alexus Grynkewich, recently described Eastern Sentry as a demonstration of the alliance’s ability to react “quickly and decisively” to threats.
Launching CAP from the UK over Poland is not an optimal use of our limited jets. We need to forward base these aircraft in Germany or Poland. The problem, as always, is we simply do not have enough aircraft. having just 6 Typhoon and 2 F35B operational Sqns is about half of what is required.
‘quickly and decisively’ as long as you wait while the get there, assuming the Germans refuel and we fly supersonic all the way over there it’s probably going to be an hour at least before we get there.
I have a hard time understanding what’s going on with operation Eastern Sentry. It’s been made very clear to me mostly by commentators on this website that the US is solely responsible for defending Europe and that most European counties are completely defenceless and can do next to nothing useful without uncle Sam carrying them.
Yet all the aircraft defending NATO against Russia seem to be European.
I can’t find much if any mention of the worlds greatest military providing anything beyond administrative support while The Netherlands, Italy, UK, France and Germany all seem to be actually providing hard assets.
Am I missing something here? Perhaps one of our MAGA commentators could point out all the major US defence contributions I am missing.
This may help to clear up the perennial misunderstanding of how 70,000 US personnel in Europe can provide more security than the 1.8 million European NATO personnel actually based on the continent.
Is this sarcasm or genuinely looking for an explanation of the US’s role within NATO?
Bit of both 😀
Just wondering why when there are Russian incursions into NATO air space there have been no US forces deployed or engaging yet i am constantly told Europe is defenceless and America defends Europe.
I just can’t equate the rhetoric with the actual reality. The two brigades and four squadrons the US has in Europe don’t seem to be much of a defence. Most of the smaller NATO members have more force than that guarding Europe.
The US does an arming job keep the North Atlantic area safe from any incursion by Mexico I just don’t see there forces doing much defending anywhere but Alaska.
Or am I missing something.