RAMSTEIN, Germany - The Royal Danish Air Force will deploy a detachment of F-16 fighter jets and approximately 60 personnel to Iceland in April to execute NATO’s Airborne Surveillance and Interception Capabilities to meet Iceland's Peacetime Preparedness Needs.

 

Air Policing over Iceland is a well-known mission to the Royal Danish Air Force, as their F-16 jets have previously deployed therein 2009, 2010 and 2015. "We look forward to take on another deployment with a mission that is very similar to the one Danish F-16s perform on a daily basis to safeguard the Danish airspace and currently also in the Baltic states," says Lieutenant Colonel Martin B Nielsen, Director of International Air Operations at Defence Command Denmark.

 

At present, four Royal Danish Air Force F-16 jets are leading NATO’s Baltic Air Policing out of Šiauliai, Lithuania, safeguarding the skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania together with an augmenting detachment of Italian Air Force Eurofighters Typhoon flying out of Estonia.

 

The mission NATO conducts in Iceland is a peacetime mission, which is specific and unique to the Ally in the High North. Given its unique geographical location, Allies, in conjunction with the Icelandic authorities, have agreed that the appropriate response is to maintain a periodic presence of NATO fighter aircraft based at Keflavik to help keep Icelandic airspace safe and secure. The focus of the peacetime preparedness mission is to establish air surveillance and interception coverage over Iceland in order to maintain the integrity of the NATO airspace.