Malbork, Poland: Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons support NATO’s enhanced Air Policing missions

19 September 2022

The Task Force Air White Eagle has been engaged for just over a month at Krolewo airport in Malbork, headquarters of the 22nd Baza Lotnictwa Taktycznego, in NATO missions to support enhanced Air Policing (eAP), with Eurofighters coming from four operational squadrons of the Italian Air Force.

In recent days the Task Force Air White Eagle conducted a series of activities with the Polish Air Force, aimed at improving the potential for interoperability of its aircraft assets. The operational activity that takes place on a daily basis within Polish airspace (Shield) often sees Italian Air Force Typhoons engaged together with Mig-29 aircraft of the Polish Air Force located on the same base in Malbork.

The missions carried out by Eurofighters together with the Polish Mig-29s offer pilots of both nations the opportunity to test the capabilities of their respective weapon systems and provide Italian Air Force personnel with yet another opportunity to exploit the undisputed potential of the Eurofighter Typhoon, the result of industrial collaboration between Germany, Great Britain, Italy and Spain, offering wide-ranging and extremely effective operational capabilities in the Air Defence sector together with our NATO partners.

To better support NATO Air Policing with Eurofighters in the skies of Malbork and better implement potential for joint use, the Italian Air Force has also made other assets available, such as the KC-767A Tanker/Transport.

For the first time in operations of enhanced Air Policing in Poland, the Task Force Air White Eagle reports directly to COVI, the Joint Operations Command, and from 1 August to 30 November 2022 it is working alongside the Polish Air Force to protect the north-eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance.

The commitment undertaken at this key point on the international political and strategic chessboard for the Task Force Air White Eagle is to ensure the integrity and safety of the airspace of Poland and all the countries in the Alliance, while at the same time maintaining sufficient strategic flexibility to be able to intervene quickly in other quadrants if needed.

Constantly in use in missions of the same kind in Estonia and Romania, the Eurofighter Typhoon confirms its reputation as an effective, high-performing air superiority aircraft for supporting NATO Air Policing. Leonardo is a partner company of the Eurofighter consortium, producing about 36% of the entire programme value, playing a key role in the aeronautical and electronics components, and provides more than 60% of the aircraft’s on-board avionics.

The aircraft is expected to continue evolving in the future: the Eurofighter Typhoon represents the starting point for development of a new generation of defence aircraft. The combination of new integrated sensors, new computer processing capabilities coupled with artificial intelligence, the “Digital Stealth” concept, without compromising on performance, place the Typhoon at the highest scale of Air Dominance.