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"More incidents": Germany's air force chief draws "red line" for Putin's fighter jets

2022-08-27T02:56:59.395Z


"More incidents": Germany's air force chief draws "red line" for Putin's fighter jets Created: 2022-08-27 04:46 By: Patrick Mayer Ingo Gerhartz, lieutenant general and inspector of the Luftwaffe, speaks on the tarmac of a NATO airport in Romania. (Archive) © Christophe Gateau/dpa The German Air Force is increasingly registering incidents involving Russian aircraft on NATO's eastern border. You


"More incidents": Germany's air force chief draws "red line" for Putin's fighter jets

Created: 2022-08-27 04:46

By: Patrick Mayer

Ingo Gerhartz, lieutenant general and inspector of the Luftwaffe, speaks on the tarmac of a NATO airport in Romania.

(Archive) © Christophe Gateau/dpa

The German Air Force is increasingly registering incidents involving Russian aircraft on NATO's eastern border.

Your inspector, Ingo Gerhartz, answers Moscow verbally.

Munich/Baltic States - Italians and Germans made common cause.

In the Romanian city of Constanta on the Black Sea, where six German and twelve Italian Eurofighters were stationed and secured the outer border of the transatlantic defense alliance NATO not far from the Ukraine theater of war.

And over the Baltic States, where five Eurofighters are stationed in Ämari, Estonia, plus support from the Spanish Air Force.

Russian military planes sighted over the Baltic States and the Baltic Sea

According to the German Air Force, Spanish fighter jets are also to strengthen the NATO contingent in the northernmost of the three Baltic countries.

Because: There is obviously a lot to do here.

Specifically: According to the Bundeswehr, the number of military encounters with Russian aircraft over the Baltic Sea increased after Vladimir Putin ordered his army to attack the neighboring country to the west.

"Yes, we definitely notice that: We have more incidents, as we call them," said the inspector of the German Air Force, Ingo Gerhartz, in ZDF's "Morgenmagazin".

We have more incidents, as we call them.

Ingo Gerhartz, Inspector of the German Air Force

Specifically: Russian military aircraft would approach NATO airspace and then be accompanied by NATO fighter jets, Gerhartz said on the show.

However, the NATO jets stayed “at a distance”.

Russian flight maneuvers in international airspace are "completely fine".

At the same time, the 56-year-old from the Palatinate said that it was being signaled that NATO airspace was a "red line" that Russian military aircraft were not allowed to cross.

Only on Friday did a reconnaissance aircraft, accompanied by combat aircraft, fly from Kaliningrad in Russia to the Baltic Sea region, said Gerhartz: "Then we'll go up."

In the video: German Air Force monitors NATO airspace over the Baltic States

Another so-called alarm squad of the Luftwaffe to defend German and NATO airspace is ready in Lower Saxony.

Just one example: a Russian reconnaissance aircraft approaching near Rügen over the Baltic Sea alerted the German Air Force at the end of April.

As a reaction to this, two Bundeswehr Eurofighters rose from the Laage air base in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania for a so-called alarm start.

Announcement to Moscow: German Air Force Chief - Baltic Sea region will be defended "in an emergency".

Gerhartz emphasized in the "Morgenmagazin" that NATO could defend security in the Baltic Sea region "in an emergency" against any attacks.

In this context, he also referred to the planned accession of the hitherto neutral countries Sweden and Finland to the alliance.

As a result, further significant air forces would be available in the region.

All in all, NATO is a "strong alliance" with which it is better not to mess.

The German Air Force is currently heavily involved in NATO missions beyond the Baltic States and Romania.

In the middle of the Taiwan conflict, six Bundeswehr fighter jets from Bavaria recently left for a Pacific exercise to ally Australia - accompanied by three A330 tanker aircraft and four Bundeswehr A400M transport aircraft.

(pm/AFP)

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2022-08-27

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