The United States began its biggest European deployment of F-22 fighters with a visit to the Black Sea in an exercise aimed at beefing up military support for NATO’s eastern European allies who say they face aggression from Russia.
President Barack Obama promised in 2014 to bolster the defences of NATO’s eastern members which were spooked by Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula and the Kremlin’s use of pro-Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
A U.S. KC-135 refuelling plane flew with the two F-22 Raptor fighters from Britain to Romania’s Mihail Kogalniceanu air base on the Black Sea.
“We’re here today to demonstrate our capability to take the F-22 anywhere needed in NATO or across Europe,” Squadron commander Daniel Lehoski told Reuters.
“We want to demonstrate our credibility and capability to bring the F-22 to Europe and actually fly the aircraft and train with our NATO allies, via that, it should deter aggression throughout NATO as well,” Lehoski said.
The United States has deployed 12 F-22s, which are almost impossible to detect on radar and so advanced that the U.S. Congress has banned Lockheed Martin from selling them abroad, at Lakenheath, a British base in eastern England.
The West is seeking to bolster the defences of its eastern flank and reassure eastern European NATO members which spent decades under Russian dominance, without provoking the Kremlin by stationing large forces permanently.
But tensions are rising and Russia says the NATO build-up is stoking a dangerous situation.
Two Russian warplanes flew simulated attack passes near a U.S. guided missile destroyer in the Baltic Sea in early April, said U.S. officials, who said the vessel was on routine business near Poland.
A Russian helicopter also made passes around the ship, the USS Donald Cook, taking pictures. The nearest Russian territory was about 70 nautical miles away in its enclave of Kaliningrad, which sits between Lithuania and Poland.
Obama’s attempt to reassure NATO’s eastern members such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Romania is termed the European Reassurance Initiative.
It includes greater U.S. participation in training and exercises, deploying U.S. military planners, and more persistent naval deployments on Russia’s doorstep.
The Black Sea is of particular focus as NATO is looking to counter Russia’s military build-up in Crimea, the home to Russia’s Black Sea fleet.
REUTERS
