Czech NATO air force mission in Baltic ending

Zdroj: ČTK/Ministerstvo obrany ČR

Siauliai (Lithuania)/Prague - The first mission abroad of Czech pilots using the Jas-39 Gripen fighters in the Baltic air space ends after four months, David Schreier, spokesman for the contingent of the Czech Siauliai air base, told CTK today.
Since May, members of the 211th tactical squadron from Caslav, central Bohemia, have had eight "action" sorties against civilian as well as military targets that did not observe the rules of flights on civilian routes, Schreier said.
"With the number of sorties, the Czech pilots have reached the previous statistics of sorties over Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia for the period since April 2004 when the countries joined NATO," he added.
The last flight of two Czech Gripens in the Baltic is scheduled for Monday. With it, Czechs will reach 336 sorties and 400 air hours within the mission, Schreier said.
The Czech Republic is the 14th NATO country to protect the air space of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The Baltic countries do not have their own supersonic air force.
"The dispatch of the combat aircraft to the mission was a big challenge both in operational and logistic terms," mission commander Jaroslav Mika told CTK today.
"The aircraft did not have any experience with this type of task since World War Two," Mika added.
Mika spoke highly of the professionalism of hundreds of the troops and pilots and stressed that they had managed to cross the planned number of air hours.
Mika said Czech pilots had proved they were able to operate within NATO air space protection.

Datum: 01. 09. 2009