A press conference was held on the mission of Turkish F-16 warplanes in Poland.
Colonel Ahmet Çandır, the commander of the Turkish unit in Malbork, said that in Poland, they were performing the duty of protecting NATO’s borders in the north.
Expressing that their aim here is to show Turkey’s support to NATO, Çandır said, “To share and best practice the experience we have gained in our country with both NATO allies and the Polish unit. We have about 80 personnel and 4 aircraft here. We generally support NATO missions with 3 aircraft.” . At the same time, we are conducting training flights with Polish pilots on both planes to the extent that NATO allows.” said.
Çandır gave information about NATO’s “Air Policing” mission and stated that it means the protection of airspace.
Çandır said, “NATO’s airspace is limited to the airspace of the member states that are included in NATO. We have carried out very successful operations in order to come from the south to the north of NATO and settle down and perform our duties from there. someone,” he said.
Colonel Yunus Akkaya stated that they carry out “prevention missions” with the warplanes of Poland and said, “Our task is to determine the intention of the pilot who does not comply with the instructions of the air traffic control unit, to detect the weapons on the plane. For this purpose, we perform both training and real-purpose take-offs.” used the phrases.
Major Murat Diler also stated that they were on duty with a guard system in NATO standards and that they could take off within 15 minutes at the latest.
Explaining that their aim is to protect NATO airspace, Diler said, “Our mission is in Poland. We can also perform missions in the Baltic airspace. We have a duty to prevent unidentified aircraft into the Baltic airspace.” he said.
Captain Ömer Kol also stated that they shared their experiences and said, “We have 9 pilots here. We perform our duty on a 24/7 basis with a watch system.” he said.
On the other hand, Turkish F-16s flew with the Polish C-295M Casa military cargo plane. It was stated that the purpose of the flight is to develop skills and capabilities through NATO cooperation.
Baltic Air Policing, which has been in operation for 17 years since March 30, 2004, is the result of agreements made to achieve a single standard of security in NATO-EU airspace for NATO member countries that do not have the necessary air capabilities.
