At ten o’clock on Tuesday 29 March, a pair of JAS-39 Gripen aircraft took off the Čáslav Air Force Base heading for Lithuania, followed by three more supersonic fighters only some ten minutes later. The members of the 7th Task Force left for Lithuania a week earlier.
“The defence of NATO’s Eastern Flank was always in our interest, even before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The long-planned stationing of the Gripens to cover the airspace over the Baltic States clearly proves that. It also testifies to the high credit of our pilots, who have been already involved in this mission for several times,” said Defence Minister Jana Černochová.
On 1 April 2022, the Czech Armed Forces Task Force enhanced Air Policing will start operating from the Shiauliai Air Base in Lithuania. The Task Force is part of NATO’s endeavour to provide air defence coverage to Baltic States which do not have their own supersonic capability.
“The capacity to protect one’s airspace is the basis of a free nation. We are members of the Alliance and our Allies can rely on us anytime. We are proving it with what is already our fighters’ seventh mission,” said the Chief of General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, General Aleš Opata.
The primary objective of the Czech unit is to be on quick readiness alert within the NATINAMDS (NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System) using JAS-39 Gripen aircraft in order to maintain the integrity and security of NATO’s airspace. Our airmen will intercept aircraft which not observing the international air traffic regulations. They will work together with the Spanish Air Force which will also operate from the Shiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, and the French Air Force, which will operate from the Ämari Air Base in Estonia.
In accordance with the mandate endorsed by the Parliament of the Czech Republic, a total of 5 Gripen and 95 airmen will be sent to Lithuania, mostly comprising service members of the Čáslav Air Base as well as other specialists. The Czech contingent will take over the operational assignment on 1 April 2022 from the Royal Danish Air Force until 31 July 2022 when they will hand over to another NATO Allied nation. Czech airmen will be stationed in Lithuania for 4 months with two rotations.
“This is our seventh Air Policing mission. We have mastered all procedures and preparations. With this deployment we deliver on our commitments to NATO. The operational assignment remains the same as for previous missions,” said the Commander of the Čáslav Air Force Base COL GS Jaroslav Míka.
The command of the 7th Task Force was entrusted to the forty six years old LTC Michal Daněk, one of the most experienced pilots of the Čáslav Air Base. LTC Daněk has logged over 2,000 flight hours on Gripen aircraft, making him one of two people in the world to have reached this milestone.
The Czech Air Force Gripens have provided air defence coverage to Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian airspace in 2009 and 2012 from the Shiauliai Air Base and then in the second half of 2019 from the Estonian Ämari Air Base. They also participated in the air policing of Iceland’s airspace in 2014, 2015 and 2016.
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