The Diplomat
Spain will send eight Eurofighter fighter jets to Bulgaria in November to help the country monitor Baltic airspace as part of NATO’s mission to protect its eastern flank in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The department headed by Margarita Robles also announced the dispatch of aircraft to Romania in December, without specifying the number or type of aircraft.
Defence thus confirmed the announcement made by the interim Bulgarian Defence Minister, Dimitar Stoyanov, who at a press conference expressed his confidence in “the arrival on 1 November of our colleagues from Spain with up to eight Eurofighter combat aircraft, which will stay until 23 November”.
The minister recalled that this deployment is part of NATO’s joint air surveillance mission, in which aircraft from different members of the Alliance have been rotating for years.
Spain already had four aircraft and 130 military personnel deployed between 11 February and 31 March at the Graf Ignatievo base, 125 kilometres east of Sofia, as part of NATO’s strategy to guarantee the security of its eastern flank and as part of NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence System.
NATO launched this mission in 2014 following Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean peninsula, with the aim of deterring Russia from aggression or the threat of aggression against NATO allies. The fighters are tasked with identifying Russian aircraft flying over the Bulgarian airspace boundary without a flight plan.
