Now reopened after undergoing an extensive modernization, Ämari Air Base in Estonia is currently hosting an unspecified number of Royal Netherlands Air Force F-35A fighter-bombers [Koninklijke Luchtmacht, KLu] as part of the Baltic Air Policing mission, which aims to protect the airspace of the Baltic countries under the aegis of NATO. These aircraft thus relieved the five Eurofighter EF-2000s which had been deployed by the Bundeswehr in Lielvārde [Lettonie].
At the same time, four Rafales from the Air & Space Force [AAE] joined the Šiauliai air base, in Lithuania, where they found the four EF-2000s deployed by Aeronautica Militaire since July 30.
This is France's eleventh participation in Baltic Air Policing since 2004. [voire la douzième si l’on prend en compte un déploiement à Malbork, en Pologne, en 2014]. Until December 2022, the AAE had never sent a Rafale to Lithuania or Estonia, the latter having preferred to entrust this air policing mission to its Mirage 2000C and -5F [voire à ses Mirage F1CR].
“We are careful not to wear out our devices prematurely, while taking into account the needs expressed by NATO. Concretely, we made the choice, initially, to maintain the Rafale in mainland France and to only project Mirage 2000-5s to the east of Europe. For what? Because an aircraft sent outside is used 100% for this mission. It is therefore an aircraft that we lack for the training of our pilots while […] twenty-four of our Rafale have been sold [à la Grèce et à la Croatie, ndlr]explained General Stéphane Mille, then Chief of Staff of the Air & Space Force [AAE]in October 2022.
However, with the war in Ukraine, it was a matter of marking the occasion. “By committing high-level resources and maintaining regular operational activity in the region, France shows that it is involved in insurance measures on the Eastern European flank, for the protection and security of space air,” explained the Ministry of the Armed Forces.
For this new four-month deployment to Šiauliai, the AAE had mobilized four Rafale Cs from the 30th Fighter Wing, based in Mont-de-Marsan. Their activity was intense, with 500 hours of flight, 70 takeoffs on training alert [tango scramble] and around fifteen takeoffs on real alerts [alpha scramble] du Combined Air Operations Center [CAOC] to intercept and identify more than 25 Russian aircraft, which have the unfortunate habit of flying with their transponders turned off.
However, the following year, the AAE again chose to send four Mirage 2000-5Fs from the 1/2 Cigognes Fighter Group to Lithuania. This deployment will have been, a priori, the last for this unit, given that it will have to part with six aircraft to deliver them to Ukraine.
On this point, the current CEMAAE, General Jérôme Bellanger, recently emphasized that “these donations [de Mirage 2000-5F] were going to impact the format of fighter aviation” and that they will have an “effect on the wear and tear of the Rafale, which will have to fly more”. And added: “The ministry has understood this and we are looking at how we can compensate for this transfer.”
However, argued MP Frank Giletti in his budgetary opinion on “Program 178 – Preparation and employment of forces – Air”, the current format of fighter aviation does not “allow the aircraft of the Strategic Air Forces to be protected [FAS]which brings together around 50% of the Rafale crew for deterrence missions alone. Also, he added, “the stacking of different operational contracts results in a commitment from the Rafale and [avions] FAS refuelers in all AAE conventional missions. “.
This is also the case for this new participation of the AAE in Baltic Air Policing. Distributed by the General Staff of the Armed Forces [EMA] via social networks, photographs of the arrival of the French detachment in Šiauliai show that the aircraft involved are Rafale Bs from the 4th Fighter Wing, which is the backbone of the FAS. And more precisely from the 2/4 La Fayette Squadron.
If these devices will only have to carry out conventional missions, the fact that they are qualified to carry the nuclear-capable ASMP-A cruise missile can also be seen as a “strategic signal” towards Moscow.
In any case, the enhanced Air Policing mission [eAP, autre nom de Baltic Air Policing, ndlr] is “a peacetime mission which materializes the North Atlantic Treaty. [Elle] aims to guarantee the integrity of the airspaces of the allies and to protect the Alliance by maintaining air policing at all times to which the French armies contribute in particular through the regular deployments of AAE fighter planes. recalled the Ministry of the Armed Forces, via a press release.
