Spain deploys four fighters with NATO in Bulgaria

A Eurofighter fighter of the Spanish Air Force at the Graf Ignatievo air base, in Bulgaria. BULGARIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE (REUTERS)

Four Eurofighter fighters from the 14th Wing of the Spanish Air Force, based in Los Llanos (Albacete), have arrived this Friday at the Graf Ignatievo air base (Bulgaria), some 225 kilometers from the Black Sea, as part of the deterrent deployment of NATO against Russia.

The Strela detachment, of which 130 soldiers are part, will carry out surveillance and control missions in the Bulgarian air space against possible Russian incursions.

The Spanish planes will begin their patrol missions on the 15th and will conclude them on March 31st.

As of April 1, six Spanish Eurofighters will carry out the same mission in Lithuania for four months.

The Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, has pointed out that these deployments are a “manifestation of Spain's commitment to NATO.

We continue to bet with all rigor and seriousness on diplomatic channels ”to overcome the current crisis, she has insisted.

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Spain participated for the first time in the surveillance shifts of the airspace of the Baltic republics in 2006 and, as of 2015, after the annexation of Crimea by Moscow in 2014, it has done so every year.

In 2021, it sent fighters to Romania for the first time and this year to Bulgaria.

The defense of the air space in southern Europe corresponds, within the NATO framework, to the Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in Torrejón de Ardoz (Madrid).

Spanish participation in NATO missions in Eastern Europe also includes the Blas de Lezo frigate, the Meteoro Maritime Action Ship (BAM) and the Sella minesweeper, which have been incorporated into the permanent allied fleets that patrol the Black Sea .

All these contributions were planned since last year, but the enlistment has been accelerated due to the escalation of tension with Russia.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg assured this Friday in Bucharest (Romania) that the Black Sea area is "vital" for Euro-Atlantic security and announced that the Alliance is studying the deployment of similar combat groups in the Balkans to those already stationed in the three Baltic republics and Poland (Spain participates with 346 soldiers in Estonia, under Canadian command).

France has offered to lead the first of them, in Romania.

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