Russian aircraft encroach on NATO at Romania coastal base

Aircraft Credit: Gloo

 CONSTANZA – Since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, NATO air forces, including Italian military, have had an increasing presence at the Mihail Kogalniceanu airport in the strategic Romanian city, and are experiencing increasingly close encounters with Russian aircraft, as reported by the Panorama newspaper.

 The Italian military was in command of the QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) mission for the last four months and in the process of normal rotation, the British Royal Airforce now operate QRA, while the Italians have switched to the EVA (Enhanced Vigilance Activity) service, under the command of Colonel Morgan Lovisa in cooperation with other countries of the Atlantic Alliance.

 Italy first and then the British, as part of the QRA, have had to carry out dozens of ‘scrambles’ due to the approach of unauthorised aircraft. The scramble order, a technical term to indicate the request for a rapid take-off, is given following an entry into the FIR (Flight Information Region). Alliance radars are capable of detecting one of these tracks among more than 30,000 daily air movements within European airspace.

 Romania has 245 k.m. of coastline on the Black Sea and the airport in Constanza faces directly opposite the airport in Sevastopol in the territory of Crimea, making it a strategically important area.Russian aircrafts often move in the region of Black Sea close to NATO area, most likely in order to keep control of the sea and their fleets there.

 Since the beginning of war in Ukraine, the airspace on the Eastern border of NATO has required increasing attention. NATO forces have been stationed in Constanza since 2014, the year Russia annexed Crimea, to support the Romanian Air Force with ‘Enhanced Air Policing’, a means of defence against possible external aggression. Air Policing acts as a deterrent in a peacetime, however since the outbreak of the armed conflict, the activity of Air Policing has been increased.

 The NATO mission in Costanza makes use of the important contribution of the Italian contingent of the Air Black Storm Task Force, deployed with eight Eurofighter 2000s and almost 200 soldiers.

 

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