Royal Air Force

Britain will send 20,000 armed forces personnel to one of NATO's largest exercises since the Cold War, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Monday.

Pro-Palestinian activists protested at the gates of RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus on Sunday, angry that the British base was used as a launch pad for strikes against the Houthi militia in Yemen.

The Defence Ministry has proposed a more ambitious development plan for the Slovenian Armed Forces under which the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence would be reached by 2030, five years sooner than currently planned.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday night said Russian air traffic control had told him that a NATO fighter jet tracked an Air Serbia passenger plane within Russian airspace on Wednesday near the Latvian border.

Making it clear he accepted the Russian claim, Vucic said Serbia would seek additional information from Russia and from NATO.

The Ministers of Defense of Bulgaria and Spain arrived at Graf Ignatievo Air Base today. They will inspect the joint airspace guard performed by MiG-29 and Eurofighter Typhoon fighters.

The crews of 4 Eurofighter Typhoon fighters and another 130 members of the Spanish contingent are already based and certified in Bulgaria for these tasks.

The implementation of joint tasks on enhanced airspace protection (Air Policing) by the Bulgarian and Spanish Air Forces begins with an official ceremony on Thursday. This was announced by the press center of the Ministry of Defense.

The Air Force of the Kingdom of Spain will relocate 130 servicemen and 4 Eurofighter EF-2000 Typhoon II aircraft to Bulgaria. They will perform tasks on enhanced airspace protection together with the Bulgarian Air Force until March 31, 2022, the Ministry of Defense announced. The first Spanish fighters are expected to land at Graf Ignatievo Air Base by the end of the week.

The British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will announce today that his country is proposing to strengthen NATO's eastern flank, including sending Typhoon fighter jets to patrol the airspace of Bulgaria and Romania. They will operate from Cyprus, where there are two British airbases.

According to the minister, the project for modernization of the Air Force envisages the acquisition of combat vehicles in two stages of eight fighters.

Two airplanes belonging to the British Royal Air Force executed on Tuesday an air police mission in international airspace over the Black Sea, to intercept an aircraft of the Russian Federation.