The Baltic Air Policing mission of the Hungarian Defence Force is now halfway through. On 1 September 2015, the 39th rotation of the Baltic Air Policing took over from the Italian and Norwegian contingents the lead of the mission to protect the common airspace of the Baltic countries.
Co-deployed with a German contingent, the Hungarian servicemen are guarding the airspace of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia until the end of December, because the three NATO member countries do not have any fighter planes.
As scheduled, some of the personnel have already been rotated out. Those arriving to replace the homecomers flew aboard two An–26 transport planes from the HDF 59th “Dezső Szentgyörgyi” Air Base, Kecskemét, Hungary to Siauliai Air Base, Lithuania.
The Hungarian Air Force is performing such a mission for the first time. Since World War II, this has been the first time that Hungarian fighter pilots and ground crew are being stationed at a foreign air base and fly training (Tango) and real-life (Alpha) scrambles.
Four Hungarian JAS–39 Gripen fighter jets and an 80-plus-strong rotation are serving at Siauliai Air Base.