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RAMSTEIN, Germany - Since December 2022, French Rafales deployed to Lithuania have been performing their enhanced Air Policing mission and have trained with Sweden.

During this deployment, the French detachment has made numerous intercepts of aircraft near Allied territory providing safety and security to all air users in the area. To offer further training opportunities, the French relocated a portion of the detachment in Sweden during a cross servicing training exercise.

It has become a routine to receive, but we gain new experiences each time that contribute to positive development for both us and the visiting country.

By doing so, the French detachment has been able to show their agility to redeploy quickly, with a small support unit, and their ability to perform their mission from different allied air bases. With the help from Lithuania, they transported nearly 20 French support operations soldiers to redeploy and operate from Satenas Air Base, Sweden. They have been working alongside their Swedish colleagues performing two combined flights a day.

"F 7 has a good ability to implement host country support and has implemented it many times before. It has become a routine to receive, but we gain new experiences each time that contribute to positive development for both us and the visiting country." Swedish Commander of F 7 Colonel Mattis Ottis.

The French relocated a portion of the detachment during their Baltic Air Policing deployment to Sweden during a cross servicing training exercise. Photos courtesy of the French Air Force. 

Interactions and combined operations led to a perfect interoperability between Sweden and France. Both the Swedish and French teams have been learning from each other by sharing their knowledge and experience maintaining each other’s aircraft. Interoperability like this provides higher security in the Baltic Sea.

Quick reaction alert flights remain the main mission of the French fighter detachment in Lithuania, alongside allied nations in Eastern Europe.