NATO BALTIC AIR POLICING.

Since Russia's annexation of the Krim in March 2014, NATO has upgraded its Baltic Air Policing mission- essentially a QRA operation - to safeguard the airspace of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia from 4 jets to 16.

Currently, four Belgian F-16's are part of this force, admitted, still a meagre one. Personnel is drawn from both the 2nd Tactical Wing (Florennes AFB) and the 10th (Kleine Brogel AFB).

Our jets operate from the Polish AFB of Malbork, alongside Polish Mig-29s.




Sorry, no time for translations. Towards the end of the video a Polish pilot is interviewed, and he states a.o. that for long missions the F-16 is better suited, but that in combat situations the Mig-29 is preferable, given its greater strength and ability to take shorter turns. I have no way of verifying the validity of that argument. If there's someone who can, please step forward.


MFBB.