NATO Air Policing Baltic States 2009

T.S.C.Plage · 11-03-2009, 10:31 AM

Some photos of the German part of the NATO Air Policing over the Baltic States. The Luftwaffe took over from the Czech Air Force with their Gripens at the beginning of September and will lead the mission till January 2010. The first part of the mission was taken over by the new Eurofighter Typhoons of JG 74 which were based outside of Germany for the first time and at the beginning of November the F-4F Phantoms of JG 71 replaced them.

So far the Typhoons have escorted a Russian An-72 and a Be A-50 Shmel (Mainstay) at the boundaries of the Baltic airspace.

T.S.C.Plage · 11-03-2009, 10:32 AM

T.S.C.Plage · 11-03-2009, 10:32 AM

T.S.C.Plage · 11-03-2009, 10:34 AM

All photos from: www.luftwaffe.de

DID · 11-03-2009, 01:26 PM

what does it mean? that baltic states sky is protected by NATO and they (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) dont own an airforce to assume this mission?

Danskeren · 11-03-2009, 01:30 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Air_Policing

plus

www.google.com

Nice pictures!

DaGreatRV · 11-03-2009, 01:46 PM

Sweet to see the Typhoon an Gripen operating together.

lightfire · 11-03-2009, 02:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DID

what does it mean? that baltic states sky is protected by NATO and they (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) dont own an airforce to assume this mission?

Just like Iceland, Luxembourg, Slovenia

From 2018 however that should change with procurement of fighter jets

Jaeger07 · 11-03-2009, 02:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaGreatRV

Sweet to see the Typhoon an Gripen operating together.

They kind of look pretty similar, like they had the same designer or were sister-models or something. But its just a coincident

Nevertheless: Beautiful planes

Evolv5 · 11-03-2009, 03:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaeger07

They kind of look pretty similar, like they had the same designer or were sister-models or something. But its just a coincident

Nevertheless: Beautiful planes

*cough* Industrial espionage *cough*

Kidding.

Great photos by the way.

Cyborn · 11-03-2009, 03:51 PM

F-4 still in service as fighters in Luftwaffe?

JCR · 11-03-2009, 03:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyborn

F-4 still in service as fighters in Luftwaffe?

Yeah, isn't german defense procurement great?
These planes were bought as an "interim solution" in 1974

Actually, the Luftwaffe uses the F-4F only as fighters.
Air to ground phantoms are retired since the 1990s.
These phantoms are AMRAAM capable, but I haven't seen any of them ever armed with AMRAAMs except for tests in the early 1990s.

Mr.K · 11-03-2009, 03:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cyborn

F-4 still in service as fighters in Luftwaffe?

An F-4 is enough to chase a cargo plane away, no?

DaGreatRV · 11-03-2009, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jaeger07

They kind of look pretty similar, like they had the same designer or were sister-models or something. But its just a coincident

Nevertheless: Beautiful planes

Yeah, they do look alike. I always imagined the typhoon to be a lot bigger compared to the gripen.
Gripen, Rafale and Eurofighter were designed all designed in the 80's and were intended to be multirole planes, with only small dissimelarities in requirements.(highwaySTOL-Gripen, CarrierBasedRafale)
They all chose the same basic layout, unstable delta-canard. I don't think it's a coincidence, designers made their calculations and concluded that to be the best configuration. (any airplane buff willing to elaborate?)
And on stealth, I think concidering that in ten years wideband radar(asea) will be widely employed and concidering the maintenance intensive RAM. Makes me think that stealth is not the way forward for fighter aircraft.
Infact I'm more looking forward to rear facing asea radar plus mini-anti-missile-missiles as active defence against SAM and AAM.

wow, this post turned out longer than I expected.

Refueler · 11-03-2009, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by T.S.C.Plage

All photos from: www.luftwaffe.de

Great to see the smokers in real action finally. When standing next to a runway while Phantoms take off, you get an errec...!

11-03-2009, 10:31 AM	#1
T.S.C.Plage Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Berlin, Germany Age: 32 Posts: 1,059	NATO Air Policing Baltic States 2009 Some photos of the German part of the NATO Air Policing over the Baltic States. The Luftwaffe took over from the Czech Air Force with their Gripens at the beginning of September and will lead the mission till January 2010. The first part of the mission was taken over by the new Eurofighter Typhoons of JG 74 which were based outside of Germany for the first time and at the beginning of November the F-4F Phantoms of JG 71 replaced them. So far the Typhoons have escorted a Russian An-72 and a Be A-50 Shmel (Mainstay) at the boundaries of the Baltic airspace.

11-03-2009, 10:32 AM	#2
T.S.C.Plage Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Berlin, Germany Age: 32 Posts: 1,059

11-03-2009, 10:34 AM	#4
T.S.C.Plage Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2003 Location: Berlin, Germany Age: 32 Posts: 1,059	All photos from: www.luftwaffe.de

11-03-2009, 01:26 PM	#5
DID Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Switzerland NE Age: 25 Posts: 1,412	what does it mean? that baltic states sky is protected by NATO and they (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) dont own an airforce to assume this mission?

11-03-2009, 01:30 PM	#6
Danskeren Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Fifth Column Age: 35 Posts: 7,073	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baltic_Air_Policing plus www.google.com Nice pictures!

11-03-2009, 01:46 PM	#7
DaGreatRV Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: earth Posts: 1,201	Sweet to see the Typhoon an Gripen operating together.

11-03-2009, 03:51 PM	#11
Cyborn Member Join Date: Aug 2008 Posts: 44	F-4 still in service as fighters in Luftwaffe?