Defence Online

Defence Minister visits Baltic Air Policing Mission

Air August 31, 2016

Defence Minister Earl Howe has praised Royal Air Force crews serving in Estonia as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission. During his visit to Amari, Earl Howe met the RAF crews who have flown nearly 20 scrambles to intercept 40 aircraft including fighters and maritime patrol aircraft.

Four RAF Typhoons have been deployed to the Amari airbase in the country since April, responding to incursions by Russian aircraft over Estonia as well as Lithuania and Latvia.

The deployment of the Typhoons underlines the leading role Britain is playing in NATO through the Government’s pledge to spend 2% of GDP on defence as well as our commitment to reassurance measures in Eastern Europe. At the NATO Summit in Warsaw in July it was announced that the UK will deploy 500 personnel to Estonia, and the UK has also committed a thousand troops a year until 2020 to NATO’s Response Force – rising to 3000 when the UK leads the Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) in 2017.

Earl Howe said: “Britain remains an outward-facing nation and with defence spending on the rise our Armed Forces are making a difference RAF Typhoons have provided invaluable reassurance to our Baltic allies standing ready 24 hours a day, seven days a week, alert and ready to respond to aircraft flying near Baltic airspace.”

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Defence Minister Earl Howe NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission RAF UK Very High Readiness Joint Task Force

Post written by: Julie Shennan

Features Editor of MOD DCB Magazine and MOD DSS Yearbook. Content Marketing Executive at BiP Solutions (Defence Online's sister company). Editor and founder of Artsnfaffs Online Magazine.