Defense News:
AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia, and LONDON — The British Royal Air Force is noting an increase of air activity by Russia as the service conducts NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission this summer. However, pilots on the ground in Estonia report that the intercepts remain safe and professional.
Four Eurofighter Typhoons from the RAF’s 11 Squadron arrived at Amari Air Base on April 24 for the four-month NATO mission. Since then, the pace of operations has been high, said Air Chief Marshal Stephen Hillier, the RAF’s chief of the air staff.
“For anyone that had any doubt about the levels of activities we are facing, note that since arriving in Estonia … our Typhoons have already scrambled 13 times in response to Russian activity over the Baltic Sea — many more times than in the whole of our last deployment there in 2016,” he said July 17 during the Air and Space Power Conference in London.
