“Alpha Scramble!” The public address announcement surprises the Spanish Defense Minister, Margarita Robles, together with her Bulgarian counterpart, Stefan Yanev, at the foot of the runway at the Graf Ignatievo base, greeting the members of the Spanish detachment that, since February 15, monitors Bulgarian airspace.
If it were a rehearsal, the voice would say: “Tango Scramble!” (with t of training, training). But it is real. In seven minutes (eight less than the 15 in which they have agreed to do so), two Spanish Air Force Eurofighter fighters are in the air to intercept the unidentified aircraft that has entered the airspace under Bulgarian responsibility.
Lieutenant Colonel Jesús Salazar, head of the Spanish Air Force detachment, jokes about “Lithuania 2″, alluding to the alarm caused by the incursion of a Russian fighter when President Pedro Sánchez was visiting the Spanish troops at the base of Siauliai (Lithuania) last July. “It seems that [los rusos] do it intentionally,” he says.
This is the second real alert since the Spanish military arrived in Bulgaria. The previous one occurred on February 17, just the day they received NATO certification. With the information collected by the electronic intelligence teams, it was possible to identify which Russian plane it was, since it refused to do so voluntarily. The Spanish fighters not only have the mission of preventing Bulgaria’s airspace from being violated, but also of monitoring the area whose control has been attributed to this Balkan country by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and which extends some 150 kilometers into the interior of the Black Sea. The appearance of unidentified planes without a flight plan not only threatens Bulgaria’s sovereignty, but also poses a risk to the security of commercial aviation, underlines the lieutenant colonel.
The Spanish Eurofighters fly under the control of the Sofia air traffic center, but the order to take off is given by NATO’s Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC), based at the Torrejón de Ardoz air base ( Madrid), responsible for the air defense of the southern flank of the Atlantic Alliance.
The Spanish military suspects that the Russian planes penetrate to the limit of Bulgarian airspace to test its defenses. The base of Graf Ignatievo (where this Monday the Spanish flag flew at half-staff due to the sinking of the Villa de Pitantxo) is more than 200 kilometers from the coast, which delays its intervention, but it is the only one with a braking cable for an emergency landing.
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tensions
The presence of the Spanish fighters “is part of the context of tensions around Ukraine”, admits the Bulgarian minister. Robles underlines that “unity is the greatest strength” of the allies and that the sending of the Eurofighters is a “support for the diplomatic and dialogue path” for which NATO and the EU are “firmly and unequivocally” committed to resolve the current crisis.
The Strella detachment (so baptized because that word, “dart” in Bulgarian, is the radio call sign for Spanish planes) is made up of 130 soldiers, more than a hundred of whom come from Wing 14, based in Los Llanos (Albacete). ).
Until now, Bulgaria – one of the allies that maintains the best relations with Moscow – had not wanted to ask for the support of the Alliance, but the Russian threat has made it change its mind. The Spanish military have been the first to arrive at this base (to which they had to bring everything, given its shortcomings), but they will not be the last. When they leave, on March 31, the Dutch will replace him. Putin’s ordeal has managed to attract more NATO troops to his doors as a first effect.
Moscow deploys 600 planes and 30 ships
The Black Sea has been abuzz since the escalation of tension began. Russia has some 600 aircraft deployed in the area and more than 30 ships – some arriving from the Barents Sea or the Pacific – navigate its waters. Conducting naval and air maneuvers in the Black Sea is not just a show of muscle, but a way of putting pressure on Ukraine. The declaration of exclusion zones reserved for military exercises forces the diversion of civil traffic and the fear of a war makes freight insurance more expensive. The result is that the Ukrainian port of Odesa has drastically reduced the entry and exit of goods. Instead, the allied fleets have not crossed the Bosphorus and are still in the Mediterranean. NATO wants to avoid an unwanted incident that could spark the current powder keg.
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