Supersonic Flight

Further tasks included hot refueling, i.e. refueling with engines running. The advantage of this type of refueling is that the aircraft systems need not be shut down after landing, so the planes can take off shortly after receiving the required amount of fuel.

The Hungarians deployed in Lithuania are conducting flights intensively during the four-month mission, and in accordance with the script of (training) Tango scrambles, the pilots are also practicing supersonic high-altitude intercepts. (Our photos were taken at an air policing training event during the intercept of a non-communicating aircraft.)

Since this September, together with Germany as lead nations of the Baltic Air Policing mission, more than 80 Hungarian airmen with four JAS-39 Gripen fighter aircraft have been performing air policing tasks for four months under NATO command over the Baltic countries. This is needed because Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania do not have fighter planes, so since their 2004 accession to NATO, in the spirit of collective defence, the allies have been guarding their airspace in four-month rotations.

This is the first time that Hungary is taking part in the mission, but it has undertaken to contribute its Gripens to guard the region for another four months in 2019.