Air Power 2017

21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

50 AIR POWER 2017 21 ST CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS

to Amari in 2016, its Typhoons performed no
fewer than 21 interceptions of 42 aircraft: Russian
fighters, transports and surveillance aircraft.
The RAF is not deploying this year as part of
BAP (this summer it will instead deploy for another
four months in support of protecting the airspace
over Romania and Bulgaria). However, currently at
Amari are five German Typhoons of the Wittmund-
based Tactical Air Wing 71. This wing took over from
another German formation in January this year, and
will remain based at Amari until the end of April,
as will the Royal Netherlands Air Force formation
operating four F-16s from Lithuania’s Siauliai Air Base.
The minimum NATO commitment to BAP is
two pairs of aircraft, but Germany has a reserve
aircraft at Amari. The missions typically last for four
months. There is also a NATO air component of BAP
at Malbork Air Base in Poland, a temporary third
aspect to the mission established in the wake of
Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula.

THE LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
Kolonel Jaak Tarien, Commander of the Estonian
Air Force, agrees with Wg Cdr Melville that the
BAP mission performs a crucial role. He sees its
importance in two main regards – firstly, as a visible
demonstration of the Alliance’s commitment to
Estonia and, even more importantly, as a physical
presence of NATO forces providing a deterrent to
potentially hasty decisions being made in the Kremlin.
While BAP is a defensive mission with a
non-threatening posture, Kolonel Tarien notes it
nevertheless makes clear that any infringement of the
NATO Baltic States’ sovereignty would immediately

involve NATO forces. And, with regard to the UK

commitment, he recalls: “We enjoyed having the RAF

here at Amari two years in a row, in 2015 and 2016.

We developed very good relations with them.”

EXTENSIVE RELATIONSHIP

Estonia’s relationship with the RAF goes even further.

For instance, Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Chief

Marshal Stephen Hillier’s first overseas visit as CAS was

to Estonia in late 2016. Moreover, as part of the NATO

Transatlantic Capability Enhancement and Training

(TACET) initiative, which supports the implementation

of the Assurance Measures of NATO’s Readiness

Action Plan and which seeks to enhance capability

development in the Baltic States and Poland, the

UK is also offering military assistance training to the

Estonian Air Force in areas such as force protection,

command and control, and force integration.

The Estonian Air Force comprises a little over 400

personnel, who operate Amari Air Base, the national

radar network and provide command and control

functions. As with Lithuania’s and Latvia’s air forces, it

has no air combat assets; another reason why BAP is

so important to the effective defence of the region.

The UK is offering military

assistance training to the

Estonian Air Force in areas

such as force protection

Kolonel Jaak Tarien

(right), head of the

Estonian Air Force,

stands in front of

an RAF Typhoon

fighter jet with Wg

Cdr Gordon Melville

(centre) and Marko

Mihkelson, member

of the Estonian

Parliament (left)

(PHOTO: G VAGULA)