• A NATO airspace surveillance mission in eastern Europe was launched hours after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

  • France provides air policing over Poland, with Rafales taking off every day from the Mont-de-Marsan base.

  • If it is a surveillance mission, the fighter planes are still equipped with missiles, to defend themselves in the event of a hostile act.

The mission was launched "from February 24, just after Russia declared war", underlines Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine, commander of the 30th fighter squadron of Mont-de-Marsan (Landes).

Since then, two Rafales have been making a round trip between Air Base 118 and Poland every day, to carry out “air police” missions on the eastern flank of Europe.

The launching of this operation "Enhanced vigilance activities" (EVA) by NATO, "shows that we were able, a few hours after the invasion of Ukraine, to have our planes available and ready to defend the NATO territory", continues Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine.

“France has thus decided to show its determination to defend NATO territory on its eastern border,” adds Colonel Jean-Michel Herpin, commander of BA 118.

“Detect a possible intrusion”

If France intervenes above Poland, "other air forces, European and American, are also mobilized and can go above Romania, the mission taking place within a NATO framework", insists the Lieutenant Colonel Anthony.

The idea is to maintain a permanent presence along the border with Ukraine, in order to ward off any possible threat.

The objective of this mission “is to monitor the airspace of NATO countries, to detect a possible intrusion of air forces foreign to these NATO countries, to either accompany them or rout them, explains Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine.

We are going there with armed planes, because if there are hostile acts against NATO coalition planes, we have to be able to defend ourselves.

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Equipped with missiles "capable of destroying an aircraft at long range"

The armament consists of six Mica missiles with infrared guidance and Meteor, "capable of destroying an aircraft at long range, that is to say several tens of kilometers", adds the commander of the fighter squadron.

These Rafales are “on an interception and air defense mission, specifies Colonel Herpin.

In addition to their six air-to-air missiles, they are equipped with three additional fuel tanks in order to have the greatest possible endurance.

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“Our frequency of flights is very scalable depending on the presence of other NATO countries, adds Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine, but there is at least a wave of two planes leaving every day.

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Flights of eight to nine hours in total

After taking off from Mont-de-Marsan, the Rafales joined, in the north-east of France, a tanker plane which took off from the base of Istres.

"We transit with him in the area, so that he can refuel our planes, generally four times," continues Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine.

This makes it possible to ensure a mission which generally lasts three hours on site, that is to say a flight of eight to nine hours in total with the outward and return journey.

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The autonomy of a Rafale, in this configuration, is of the order of 1h30 to 2 hours of flight.

"At the physiological level, these are missions that are long, with day or night slots", points out Captain Vincent, fighter pilot.

Before each flight, the pilots are briefed by an intelligence officer, who takes stock of the situation, draws up the inventory of the forces present, specifies the state of the device alongside which they will carry out their mission.

Captain Vincent specifies that “we are there in observation”: “the directives are clear and we know exactly what we must do, and what line we must not cross”.

So far, he has not felt "the tension of the conflict that is currently unfolding".

“In the air, the situation is calm, there is no danger.

But we leave armed so that our command can, if necessary, make us intervene ”.

“No incident” has been noted since the start of the conflict, assures Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine.

Surveillance of the national territory

This air police mission is one of the specificities of BA 118 in Mont-de-Marsan.

“We do the same thing in France 365 days a year,” says Lieutenant-Colonel Antoine.

The 30th fighter squadron, made up of around forty Rafales, is indeed used as part of the surveillance of the national territory.

“We have two armed planes capable of taking off in a few minutes to intercept or help a plane in difficulty on national territory,” adds Colonel Herpin.

With 3,500 people, BA 118 in Mont-de-Marsan is one of the Air Force's largest bases.

It houses a total of fifty Rafale, and a dozen Mamba launchers (ground-air defense).

These planes are also projected on other theaters of operations.

“At present, says Colonel Herpin, we have crews in Jordan, for missions over Iraq and Syria, as part of Operation Chammal.

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