F-22 Raptors arrive in Estonia to deter aggression over Baltic skies

The U.S. Air Force has deployed stealthy high-tech F-22 Raptor fighter jets to Estonia to deter aggression in the Baltic Sea region.

F-22s, the world’s most superior fighters which do things no other fighter can do, arrived at Amari Air Base, Estonia supporting NATO Allied Air Command’s Air Shielding mission along the Eastern Flank executed an Agile Combat Employment deployment.

In early April, Joint Base Langley-Eustis’ 94th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron deployed 12 F-22 Raptors to Poland’s Powidz Air Base in support of the critical mission, which augments the Alliance’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) and Counter-Integrated Air Defense System (C-IADS) capabilities to safeguard the nearly 1,500-mile-long border along NATO’s Eastern Flank.

- ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW -

By rapidly fielding forces alongside NATO Allies in the Baltic Sea region, U.S. Air Forces in Europe highlight the operational readiness of the coalition forces throughout the European theater and their ability to respond to defend NATO territory.

The Baltic nations – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – are situated on a critical air, land, and sea corridor, which requires a coordinated approach between Allies to maintain and sustain international freedom of maneuver throughout the region.

A Spanish NASAMS air defense system currently deployed to Latvia provides ground-based air defense capabilities in close coordination with the Latvian Control and Reporting Center. Also deployed to Estonia, Royal Air Force Typhoons are conducting NATO’s peacetime Air Policing mission. The U.S.’s ability to rapidly augment other deployed units with fifth-generation fighters expands the Alliance’s ability to integrate across all domains.

An effective IAMD structure incorporates air, land, sea, space, and cyber domains to provide full-spectrum awareness of airspace faced with complex adversary threats. As a highly maneuverable stealth aircraft, the F-22 fifth-generation fighter is designed to rapidly project dominance, penetrate evolving threats, and achieve air superiority.

If you would like to show your support for what we are doing, here's where to do it.

If you wish to report grammatical or factual errors within our news articles, you can let us know by using the online feedback form.

Executive Editor

About author:

Colton Jones
Colton Jones
Colton Jones is the deputy editor of Defence Blog. He is a US-based journalist, writer and publisher who specializes in the defense industry in North America and Europe. He has written about emerging technology in military magazines and elsewhere. He is a former Air Force airmen and served at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

TRENDING NOW

Roshel’s new armored vehicles enter full production

Roshel Defence, a prominent name in the smart armored vehicle industry, has unveiled two new models now entering full production: the Senator Medical Evacuation...