Notification: from 1st December Italian Eurofighters and Hungarian Gripens will temporarily perform Air Policing

From Sunday, 1st December 2024, Air Policing, the peacetime task of surveillance and protection of the airspace will be temporarily (until the end of 2025, i.e. the beginning of 2026) executed from the air bases of the neighbouring allied countries of Italy and Hungary, by Italian Eurofighters and Hungarian Gripens.

The Republic of Croatia will not bear the cost i.e. this service is free of charge. During the transition period, other NATO members also temporarily entrusted their allies with training their air policing pilots, i.e., formation of two fighter jets on QRA standby.

The Ministry of Defence has already reported that the Rafale fighter jets protect the sovereignty of the Croatian airspace, but temporarily do not form two fighter jets on QRA standby so as not to affect the intensity and the implementation of pilot training.

After the bilateral agreements (Technical Arrangements) were signed at the level of the Armed forces, they were signed on behalf of the Ministry of Defence by Commanders of the Air Forces, as we reported earlier, their implementation will begin on 1st December.

Until the implementation of those agreements, two fighter jets on QRA standby were formed by MiG-21 fighter-interceptors. As of Sunday, 1st December, the MiG-21 fighter-interceptors will no longer be in the system of high alert, i.e., they will not execute Air Policing.

The airspace of the Republic of Croatia is an integral part of the allied joint airspace surveillance and protection system. With a signed document (Transfer of Authority – TOA) at the level of the Armed forces in 2009, the Republic of Croatia, as well as other NATO Air –Defence and Anti-Missile Defence Forces, accepted Air Policing as a peacetime task of air surveillance and protection, which includes air surveillance and guidance, command and control in the air and appropriate means of air defence (fighter jets).