On August 24, NATO Allies held a verification test over Romania to evaluate the synergy of their air assets in the protection of NATO airspace using Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) resources.

During this exercise, fighter jets and air-to-air refuelling aircraft from France, Spain, and Türkiye collaborated over Romania.

The primary focus was to enhance the readiness and interoperability of NATO IAMD, integrated with other capabilities, such as surface-based air and missile defence (SBAMD) systems.

The entire operation was supervised by NATO’s Allied Air Command through the Combined Air Operations Centre at Torrejón. Their role was to monitor and assess the coordination of these multiple assets.

Brigadier General Christoph Pliet, Deputy Chief of Staff Operations at Allied Air Command, remarked on the importance of these exercises.

“NATO IAMD provides a highly responsive, time-critical and persistent capability to achieve a desired level of control of the air. This ensures the Alliance is able to achieve freedom of action to conduct the full range of its missions, safeguarding and protecting Alliance territory,” he said.

He further highlighted the beneficial nature of the mission, emphasising its role in fostering “integration and interoperability” among the participating air forces.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

9 COMMENTS

  1. Working together is difficult and practice makes perfect. If nato is to be able to react quickly and work together well these exercises will help.
    O/T has anyone seen anything about China losing a type 93 submarine recently? Only seen what can be described as rumours so far.

    • Read same rumour, truth will emerge eventually; ChiComs can control narrative for an extended period, but not forever.

    • Heard rumours of an underwater collision or explosion but nothing definite. The type 93 isn’t a particularly good SSN it’s distinctly equivalent to Western 1st or 2nd gen SSNs in terms of quietening and sensor technology.
      The PLAN put 3 of them into an ambush position in front of QEC carrier battle group. They were detected at +100 mile range by the patrolling type 23s and tracked with ease.
      Type 95 currently in build , with stolen Barracuda class design technology should give the PLAN a significant generational gap filler. So we’ll done to France for their excellent IT security and being wise to Chinese industrial espionage…..not.

  2. Hi folks hope all is well.
    Keeping with the NATO topic.
    The first episode of Chanel 4’s Top Guns Inside the RAF. So far so good.There is comment made by a ground crew member when the siren is sounded for quick reaction. The comment is about the issue of a problem with one of the standby Typhoons, there is a backup one to turn to.
    The comment is something like “if the backup has a problem there’s no other”
    My ears pricked up when I heard this. Can this be correct? As ever I turn to you experts on this forum to advise.
    Cheers,
    George

    • Only so many aircraft can be deployed to cover the commitment. If the requirement is for two aircraft on 24/7 standby. You can’t deploy another 10 for just incase. Plus it’s a shared commitment with other NATO countries. Things go wrong from time to time on start up. They are very complex machines. But generally, fast jets like Typhoon are very reliable, and achieve very high availability rates. 👍

          • The flights deployed to Estonia are generally 4 aircraft. That meams two operationally ready, plus one in flight reserve, which may be undergoing maintenance, and a fourth one as war/attrition reserve.

            It should be possible to have 3 available for immediate operations, two sounds extremely thin. Is the problem lack of pilots or ground crew, wouldn’t surprise me?

            A flight of 5 would be a lot better, it would give you 3 operationally ready. But with the 30+ F2s (the tranche 1 Typhoons) being scrapped without replacements and the force severely stretched with training the Qatari pilots and the tactical training squadron for air-to-air combat, plus flights in the Falklands, Cyprus and QRA, there simply ain’t enough aircraft to go round, even if the RAF had been able to save sufficient aircrew and groundcrew numbers amid the endless accountants’ cuts.

            A sensible and responsible Government would have ordered another 24 Typhoons to replace the F2s, in order to retain our very slender air defence/tac air capability. Alas no, we continue our cost-cutting, capability-reducing spiral, with another long capability gap until sufficient F-35s drip out of the pipeline in 5 or 6 years time.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here