Three Rafale fighter jets arrive in Romania. France will deploy the fighter jets for joint exercises with Romanian F-16s
This week, France Air Force will deploy Rafale fighter jets to the 86th Air Base in Borcea, Romania. The French will carry out joint manoeuvres and simulate interceptions alongside Romania's F-16 Fighting Falcon and Turkey's F-16s.
The Turks are already deployed to carry out Enhanced Air Policing missions alongside the Romanian Air Force at Borcea.
The presence of the Rafale jets at 86 Borcea was also confirmed by French General Loïc Girard, commander of the NATO Battle Group in Romania - a group led by France - and Senior National Representative in Romania, during a meeting he had on security issues with Romanian journalists, which was also attended by DefenseRomania.
Subsequently the Romanian Air Force confirmed that three Rafale jets will be deployed in Romania.
The exercise scenario includes the interception of a "target" aircraft, represented by a C-27 J Spartan transport aircraft of the Romanian Air Force, which will fly on the flight path Base 90 Air Transport Otopeni - Base 86 Air "Lieutenant Aviator Gheorghe Mociorniță" and return, says the Ministry of National Defence (MApN).
This is not the first time Rafale fighter jets have been deployed in Romania. It has happened before in 2022, and last year when the French took part in joint manoeuvres with the Romanian air force.
France also leads the multinational battle group in Romania. The NATO Battle Group in Romania, as part of the Aigle mission, in which France is the framework nation, is deployed in Cincu.
Next year a brigade of over 4,000 troops and several hundred armoured vehicles will be deployed from France to Romania for several weeks. This is a NATO exercise to test on a large scale the deployment of a full brigade on Europe's borders in a very short timeframe. Of course, the goal of increasing the group to brigade level will be achieved gradually, with a formal decision expected at this year's NATO summit in Washington.
However, the French also actively participate in Romania's air defences. In the summer of 2022, France transferred to our country a SAMP/T system, also known in France as MAMBA.
The state-of-the-art system was deployed for Romania's coastal defence following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
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