The UK will send Typhoon fighter jets to Poland to take part in NATO’s new Eastern Sentry mission, following what officials described as the most serious violation of alliance airspace by Russia to date.
The Ministry of Defence said the aircraft, operating from RAF Coningsby and supported by Voyager refuelling tankers from Brize Norton, will begin patrols in the coming days. They will join Danish F-16s, French Rafales and German Eurofighters in an effort to reinforce NATO’s eastern flank against growing aerial threats.
The decision comes after multiple Russian drones crossed into Polish airspace on 10 September, prompting Warsaw to trigger consultations under Article 4 of the Washington Treaty. A further incident saw another drone breach Romanian airspace over the weekend.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said: “Russia’s reckless behaviour is a direct threat to European security and a violation of international law, which is why the UK will support NATO’s efforts to bolster its eastern flank through Eastern Sentry. These aircraft are not just a show of strength, they are vital in deterring aggression, securing NATO airspace, and protecting our national security and that of our allies.”
Defence Secretary John Healey called the move a signal of allied unity. “Russia’s actions are reckless, dangerous, and unprecedented. They only serve to strengthen the unity of NATO. Just as we stand with Ukraine, we will stand with our Polish NATO allies in the face of Russian aggression.” He added that Typhoons would help “deter Russian aggression and, where needed, defend NATO’s airspace, making Britain secure at home and strong abroad.”
According to the MOD, the deployment is part of a broader push to strengthen NATO’s posture following repeated airspace violations in Poland, Romania, and the Baltic states. The UK emphasised that the additional missions will not impact its Quick Reaction Alert duties defending British airspace.
The government also linked the move to its wider defence spending commitments. Ministers reiterated that defence investment will rise to 2.6 percent of GDP by 2027, which they argue is necessary to meet what they call a “new era of threat.”
These “exercises” in Belarus, honestly! The press (not UKDJ 🙂 is spinning it like WW3 is starting this week. . . .The Belarusian Military couldn’t find its arse with both hands. A part of me says “do it, go for it” then when the Belarus is reduced to a graveyard for the poor buggers in Putin’s similarly clapped out military, perhaps Rum & Cigars.
When will we be ordering new aircraft for the reduced RAF?
When will anything be ordered beyond a new supply of proper clips.
This is getting a bit silly really.
The thing is there are 22 Spanish tranche 2s going cheap.. 22 of those would do the RAF a treat.
Are they getting rid of T2s? They even upgraded their T1s
They keep on trying to flog tranche 2s to Columbia… there is a bit of thought that on the quiet the Spanish government are wanting to reduce their fast jet fleet numbers by getting shot of some of the tranche 2 fleet… while hiding behind modernising with new typhoon buys…
Probably around November once the equipment plan is ready
Putin always pushing is Luck .Has for Defence Secretary John Healey take a leaf out of other NATO members and order some new Typhoons 🙄
I would first grab those 22 tranche 2 s from Spain as a short term boost.. then maybe order some new ones.
Manning would be the problem
To be honest not so much, the issue at present is the RAF don’t actually have the typhoon numbers to keep its present squadron numbers up, 22 extra typhoons does not give you increased squadron numbers it just stops a drop off. The RAF only has 96 single seat tranche 2-3 jets.. 6 front line squadrons takes a min of 72 jets, the OCU 12, Test and evaluation 4, Falklands 4, joint squadron 6ish that’s about 98 jets deployed.. you need at Least 20-30% on top of that number for your sustainment fleets …. So just to maintain its present commitments it needs 20-30 more jets.. otherwise in the near future it’s cutting at least 2 typhoon squadrons.
Manning’s not a problem – holding has never been so busy.
When will Russia’s ‘reckless actions’ become acts of war?
NATO’s response has been tested, and political will was found wanting – these ‘incidents’ will continue until eNATO gives Putin a bloody nose. There are only so many words to condemn actions, eventually action must be taken. All the better before Russia are truly on the front foot and galvanized.
UK and European leadership is so, so weak. This behaviour must be punished, not decried.
Problem is at what point it is open war? Israel and ussr have been at war (20 000 soviets took part in the war of attrition) but what would be the trigger to bomb russian troops in Belarus?
‘Open war’, is an arbitrary phrase in terms of the threshold. It is recognisable when tanks are rolling across borders of course, but this slow drip of aggressive actions belies the active intent. The point should be to respond in a way that at least matches the provocation. Constantly condemning an ever escalating ladder of real-world actions shows weakness and allows an enemy to build momentum.
NATO should declare this *third* incursion into NATO airspace a clear act of aggression and act accordingly. Or at least, countries interested in maintaining the Eastern flank should move to automatically impound shadow fleet vessels, seize the russian assets in europe, and enforce a no fly zone over all of eastern europe and ukraine. Like Poland has done, more assets should be massed at critical points like the suwalki gap and other areas. At this point E5 should start moving troops into Ukraine in addition to policing their skies, and move naval assets into the Black Sea and start running exercises.
Nations should also secure emergency funding to produce as much useful munitions as quickly as possible – as well as an attempt to test NATO resolve, probe for weaknesses, gauge response times/procedures – these incursions are also a way of sapping countries of munitions, as no one has fully fielded cost effective ways of dealing with multiple drone threats. NATO are out there right now wasting millions shooting down drones that cost a few thousand.
Interesting, not deploying to Poland but operating from home base.
But Starmer and Healey got their tough words in. Tick.
And the 2.6% cobblers.
Why won’t a journalist correct the Ministers with the details of what was included previously, and what they’ve shoved into it since:
Chagos payments.
Afghan payments.
SIA, around 4 to 5 billion i recall.
Ukraine money.
SSN dismantling.
Plus all the DNE stuff thats been in there years.
You fool nobody.
It will be interesting to do a like for like comparison over the years and predicted from about 2000 to see exactly where we we’re going to be with defence spending
With the exclusion of the DG payment all those line items have been covered under NATO defence spending allocations since long before Starmar was in office.
SIA in particular is very much a military capability and has always been covered under NATO defence spending guidelines and with good reason.
Europe could do more with more spending in SIA and less on tanks and infantry.
It has an abundance of military manpower and equipment but as we have seen in Ukraine very limited intelligence capability.
No, I don’t believe the SIA was part of core defence spending till recently.
“The SIA is a military capability…”
Are we discussing the same SIA, Jim? As only a part of it has any relation to military operations.
The BBC say they will operate from coningsby supported by voyager refueling. That’s 1000 miles each way to get on station
Good training.
1000 miles is not much for a Typhoon and ultimately if we get in a real shooting war with Russia then Typhoons will have to be flying from the UK as bases in Poland and the Baltics will be under attack by SRBM’s
We won’t want to be sending our small fleet of precious typhoons onto over loaded bases with limited hardened shelter capacity when we can keep them in our nicely protected bases at home.
It’s about 4 hours extra per sortie less on station, so maybe halving the time on station. It also adds Voyager hours and a whopping extra amount of fuel. The only saving is not transfering a squadron of personel to Poland. I suspect the real reason is that the RAF are so small that they simply don’t have a ready to deploy squadron over and above the one on POW in the far East right now. Perhaps the top brass are hoping that a token addition for just a couple of weeks will be enough and just stretching the UK South QRA will do and this therefore is the quickest and cheapest option.
The F35Bs on PoW are a seperate force, so I doubt that has any bearing on it.
I do agree though, on the lack of assets, especially as Typhoon force covers the Falklands, Op Shader, and UK QRA N & S.
The RAF didn’t have F35Bs a short while back, they had 100% of people and kit not on aircraft carriers. Now they have less than 100% not on aircraft carriers, so unless I’ve missed the news of the RAF being bigger than before, I’d say that the POW force does reduce the UK RAF force. By a bit at least.
Indeed, they didn’t. They had 3 Sqns of Tornado GR4s in a different role.
Which, when they were cut, actually expanded the RAF Typhoon force as 2 extra Sqns stood up, as did 617 with F35s, using those flight and ground crews, to stop RAF fast Jet Sqn numbers dropping from 8 to 6.
Cosmetic, aircraft wise, as there were no extra Typhoon ordered. But not in people.
My point was as the F35 and Typhoon force are separate, each with Sqns and personnel allocated, I don’t see how having part of one on a Carrier diminishes the other. The Typhoon force is too small as it lacks assets, not because another part of the RAF has somehow taken them.
It’s like saying an Army Ranger Bn sending Dets to Africa detracts from one of our Armoured Brigades. It doesnt.
Whatever, fact remains as we said, we are too small.
Of course, Healey recently grandstanded about the F35 force being ‘committed ‘ to the defence of allies in the far east!!
Any chance to grandstand mate….it irritates me.
Not in that the UK is doing it, as we, as a P5, G7 member should.
But in that they talk, then cut at the same time, while keeping the forces on drip feed of money.
As I keep saying, they fool nobody who understands and follows the situation regards the British military.
Yeah, usual MOD, all fur coat and no knickers.
And as you say, our Typhoon force is too small. Those T1s and their unused airframe hours, and the ground crews should have been kept.
Wow they are going to need some 6 hours of early warning of any drone attack then. Let’s hope the Ruskies oblige. This is just embarrassing ‘style over substance’ that will fool no one but the idiots who initiated it, talk about phony war, god help us if there is a real one or Starmer will be like Hitler manouvering imaginary forces from his bunker.
Unless they are on CAP just in case.
But yes, style over substance sums up this government rather well defence wise.
Nail on the head.
Obviously it’s a token gesture for the headlines and to placate a certain world leader visiting soon. I suspect we’ve volunteered as the back-stop to deploy as the second, or more probably third wave of aircraft. Let’s be realistic, it’s an optics exercise to “show” NATO is willing to do something, rather than actually doing anything at all.
To me it does seem a bit strange – the RAF does contribute to the Baltic Air Policing Missions, so the facilities are already there. Maybe there are limits to how many Aircraft can be supported there, but hey Burning more Fuel and Airframe hours makes perfect sense 🙄😳.
Did stick out as odd. Guessing token gesture that won’t last long enough compared to the time involved in moving the jets and ground crews to Poland or wanting to be seen doing something faster. Time will tell, as if it’s just patch job whilst ground crews are moved over, then we will soon know.
I know the RAF is stretched but it doesn’t seem possible that it can’t spare a squadron or part of one to move to Poland. On the flip side this is a long term threat, it’s not viable to constantly fly from the UK for the years to come.
You think Starmer cares about that? I don’t. The RAF, like the rest of the military, will try to do as told by the politicians.
Stretching a reduced Typhoon fleet even further I see.
So, an additional operational tasking coming out of the existing defence budget?
Maybe they will use our QRF , dont worry Poland we will be there in about 4 hours 🙂
The UK getting involved in Europe and doing their dirty work?
Hasn’t France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium et al got any aircraft?
Let’s stop being defensive and strike the Western Russian Navel bases, shoot down those Bears and SU-27s and get it all over and done with.
Austria is not a NATO member
Yes, they have. I understand Danish and French aircraft have also deployed.
We are involved in Europe, as we are part of Europe, as a geographic entity, and culture.
That will always be so if we are in NATO or not, or in the EU or not.
And we are in NATO, so it is right that we contribute.
Your last paragraph is scary. You’d escalate to that extent due to Drone violations? Playing right into Putins hands.
How do you think Russia would respond to such an attack?
They would retaliate, then what?
I know your last question is rhetorical Daniele, but I think someone should spell it out for these people.
They’d retaliate, and then we’d be effectively in open war with the world’s largest nuclear power. With all the military, social and economic consequences that would entail.
Thank you, Leh.
Honestly….there are posters here, anonymous of course, almost itching for ww3, with all that entails. It’s not clever, neither is it “look at me, how tough I can talk” bollox.
I hope grown ups are in charge, not Rambo.
Sitting and appeasing isn’t an option, neither is that sort of action.
Grey zone is.
Germany is flying from Rostock Laage, they reinforced the qra from 2 to 4 aircraft. I wonder where the French Rafale deployed to.
Refuelling will probably happen by the European MMF fleet or A400ms.
In a typical example of the false economy that characterises so many UK defence cuts, last year 36 RAF Typhoon Tranche 1 fighters were sold for parts recovery and then scrapping. Most were less than 20 years old and had over half their airframe life left. Admittedly they were primarily air defence platforms that lack the multi-role capabilities of later tranches. But lots of air defence fighters is precisely what the UK and NATO badly needs at the moment.
OK- fine agree that the RAF needs to join allies to support Poland in the face of blatant infringement of its national territory and air space. this is Russia and Mad Vlad doing what he continuously does- all actions short of actual war are viable as part of his hybrid warfare.
We need to match that with steadfast commitment to article 5 and our NATO allies
When are the RAF getting replacements for the tranche 1s scrapped/ to be sold off?
We need to approach Spain- they have 24 tranche 2s going spare that can and will be adaptable to carry all British advanced munitions- that would help for starters- then Id suggest additional new build tranche 4 typhoons- 24-36 more needed.- when are HMG going to wake up?
GBAD is an appalling mess- we have bog all systems and those we have are too few to make much of an impact- additional Land Ceptor orders above the £115 million reported for 9 more systems and the Foxhound SHORAD system using starstreak, asraam or martlett would be sensible- we need dozens more SHORAD and GBAD units.
shooting down low performance drones with high performance 4.5gen or 5th gen aircraft is a total waste of resources as well as flight hours on the air frames.
Just send Drones, Drones are the future, Drones can do it all for a fraction of the cost and with no people in the loop. Drones are a no brainer in this type of stand off situation, we just need a few thousand cheap Polystyrene 3D printed airframes and some engines off TEMU and thejobs a good one.
Drones, that’s the key, we don’t need £100 Million Typhoons just Drones.
I don’t wish to Drone on about it but Drones are deffo the answer to the UK’s future defence. We can have Drone Aircraft, Drone Tanks, Drone Ships, Drone Subs, Drone Missiles, Drone Guns, Drone Dogs, Drone Soldiers, Drone First Sea Lords, Drone Drones, Drone drone drone drone drone drone drone drone DRONE wunderfull DRONE.
And another thing, Drone Parrots, This Parrot is dead, no it isn’t, it’s sleeping.
There, that’s my take on Drones.
I worry HMG are already using Drones as an excuse not to buy conventional kit alongside them.
Don’t encourage!
Suprised nobody here is mentioning the RAF Poseidon P-8 that was flying Poland’s borders with Kaliningrad and Belarus yesterday, a mission normally handled by Rivet Joints. Were they all busy elsewhere or undergoing maintenance?…