Czech Republic starts its NATO Air Policing tour

By departure of the first part of the 2nd ACR Contingent to Lithuania, the Czech Republic goes on with participation in the NATO Air Policing mission in the Baltic States. 

The first group of the 2nd ACR Contingent to serve in favour of the NATO Air Policing mission in the Baltics departed the Caslav Air Base on 21 August 2012 by CASA C-295M plane. Further air transports of the rest of 64-member Contingent including four JAS-30 Gripen (SAAB 39 Gripen) supersonic aircraft were planned for 23 and 30 August.

Commander of the Contingent Colonel Petr Lanci assumes an operational task in Lithuania from the Polish Air Force Contingent commander on 1 September 2012, and will hand it over to the Royal Danish Air Force on 4 January 2013. “Using experience from the first deployment, we are ready to fulfil the operational task,” Colonel Lanci says.

The Czech Republic entered the NATO Baltic Air Policing in 2009 deploying the 1st ACR Contingent with four JAS-39 Gripen aircraft which served at the Lithuanian Siauliai Air Base from 1 May to 31 August 2009.

”We consider a two-year interval from the first deployment as an optimal rotation cycle,” Brigadier General Jaroslav Kankia, Deputy Director of the Joint Operational Centre of Czech MoD, says at the departure of air personnel from Caslav to Siauliai.

Source/Author: Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic

Photo: Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic