Italian jets intercept Russian warplanes. This week, several Russian jets pushed their way into the northern border of NATO and the EU in the extremely sensitive Polish airspace.
- They were repeatedly chased off by NATO’s Enhanced Air Policing Task Force, nicknamed White Eagle, stationed in Malbork and run by the Italian Armed Forces.
- As the Italian Air Force tweeted, Friday marked the eighth time the Task Force scrambled its Eurofighters to intercept the Russian aircrafts.
Rome in the Eastern flank. The Italian Parliament approved four military aid packages since Russian invaded Ukraine. Italy also upped its air policing efforts in Poland, sent an additional 750 units in Bulgaria to take command of the battlegroup, and some more in Hungary.
- Over on the Eastern frontier, Italy has already deployed over 2,000 military personnel and 500 vehicles, plus 1,300 reservists, who have been standing by on maximum alert since February.
Unprecedented deployment. Never since the Second World War have the Italian Armed Forces maintained such a vast area of deployment, wrote the Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Giuseppe Cavo Dragone, in his Strategic Concept. That’s because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was a “watershed moment” that triggered the strengthening of NATO’s deterrence and defence policies.
- In this scenario, the commitment of the national military apparatus has grown, deployed in a geographical arc that goes from the Arctic to the Gulf of Guinea, through the Baltic Sea, the Eastern flank, the Persian Gulf, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East and the Sahel.
Image: Twitter profile of the Italian Air Force.
