This Monday, the King thanked the Spanish aviators for protecting the airspace of the Baltic republics against incursions by Russian aircraft at a time that he himself has described as one of enormous tension and risk. In a hangar at the Siauliai base, about 200 kilometers northwest of the Lithuanian capital, Felipe VI conveyed to the members of the Vilkas detachment his gratitude, pride and admiration for the development of a mission that, in his words, reflects the firm and deep commitment of Spain to the Atlantic Alliance.
Wearing the uniform of a captain general of the Air and Space Army and accompanied by the Lithuanian president, Gitanas Nauseda, he visited the base where 80 soldiers, mainly from the Torrejón combat wings, have been deployed since April 1. Ardoz (Madrid) and Zaragoza, with eight F-18 fighters to which an A400M tanker plane was added on the 21st, which multiplies its flight range.
Since 2006, and more frequently after the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Spain has participated in the rotating shift among the allied countries to guarantee the air defense of the Baltic republics, which lack combat aviation. For four months, it is the leading nation of the air policing mission in the Baltic region, in which German and Portuguese aircraft also collaborate.
The King has attended a Tango Sramble, an exercise consisting of simulating the interception of a suspicious aircraft that has its transponder turned off or has not notified its flight route or has modified it without prior notice. Since the current detachment was incorporated, there have been 18 cases of Alpha Scramble or real alerts, the last one last Friday, by Russian military planes on the route to Kaliningrad, the Russian enclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland.
According to Lieutenant Rafael de Carlos Alonso, fighter pilot, when an alert occurs, two F-18s take off in a maximum time of 15 minutes. One of them stays behind and the other approaches the unidentified flight, close enough for the two pilots to see each other’s faces. This is usually enough for the suspect aircraft to exit NATO airspace, if it has violated it, and return to the corridor linking the route between Kaliningrad and St. Petersburg. Until now.
In July 2021, during the visit to this same base by the President of the Government Pedro Sánchez, the drill became a real alert and the stage set up in a hangar for the Lithuanian president and his guest to give a press conference had to be evacuated. in a hurry so that the Spanish fighters could go out to intercept a Russian plane. The mission in Lithuania ends on August 1, but another Spanish air detachment, in this case with Eurofighter aircraft, will be deployed on December 1 in Romania to monitor the Black Sea for four months.
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During the lunch offered to him by the Lithuanian president in Vilnius, Felipe VI reaffirmed Spain’s commitment to the security of the Baltic region, which he already expressed on Sunday in Tallinn (Estonia), and his determination to maintain support for Ukraine. providing humanitarian, economic and military assistance, at a time when the support of some allies is faltering. In this context, he recalled the agreement signed during the recent visit to Madrid of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, by which Spain will supply kyiv with weapons valued at 1,000 million euros this year.
high speed line
The King has not forgotten to mention the interest of Spanish companies in the project to build a high-speed line that links the three Baltic republics with the rest of Europe and the installation of an offshore wind farm near the city of Klaipeda. Subsequently, the King went to the Antakalnis cemetery, where he paid tribute to those who died in January 1991, when Soviet troops repressed Lithuania’s declaration of independence, months before the implosion of the USSR forced its final withdrawal.
Tomorrow, Tuesday, the Minister of Defense, Margarita Robles, is expected to join the delegation. He will do so on the last stop of the tour of the Baltic republics, to accompany Felipe VI on his visit to the Adazi base (Latvia), 120 kilometers from the Russian border, where 650 Spanish soldiers are deployed within the framework of the NATO Operation Enhanced Forward Presence. The King left Spain on Sunday without being accompanied by any member of the Government, a figure known by protocol as day ministerwhich constitutes an unprecedented event.
The head of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, had a meeting this Monday with his European colleagues in Luxembourg; while the head of Defense, Margarita Robles, excused herself weeks ago, although her public agenda only included a visit this Monday to the Aeroevacuation Unit of the Air Force at the Torrejón de Ardoz base (Madrid), also this Monday. The head of the Defense Staff, Admiral Teodoro López Calderón, with the rank of Secretary of State, was scheduled to accompany the King, but he became unwell at the last minute on Saturday, so he canceled the trip, leaving him as the highest representative of the Armed Forces to the head of the Operations Command, Lieutenant General Francisco Braco. The same Sunday, when the King was already flying to Estonia, Defense announced that Minister Robles would join at the end of the tour.
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