On September 20, London said that British fighters had conducted the first NATO air defense combat flight over Poland as part of the Eastern sentry mission.
According to the plan, 2 Typhoon fighter jets of the Royal Air Force were deployed from a military base in eastern England on the evening of September 19 (local time), with the mission of patrolling the Polish sky.
As of early morning on September 20 (local time), the British government said the two fighters had returned safely after the mission.
The Eastern Guard mission was announced on September 15. At the time, British Defense Minister John Healey declared NATO airspace will be protected, in the context of many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) believed to be Russian encroaching on Polish airspace in early September.
Meanwhile, Air Force Chief of Staff, Air Force Command Harv Smyth pledged that London will always be flexible, coordinate closely and be ready to deploy air power from a distance to protect NATO airspace from external threats.
After Poland, strange UAVs penetrating the airspace continued to appear in Romania (September 14) and Estonia (September 19) - both countries are NATO members. Most of these countries believe that Russia has controlled UAVs to cross the no-flying areas after carrying out airstrikes in Ukraine.
Despite no clear evidence that the UAVs belong to Russia, the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer's government still reacted strongly, calling it the "more serious violation" that Moscow has committed since the conflict in Ukraine broke out in 2022.
Notably, the UK has pledged to increase defense spending to 2.6% of GDP in April 2027, as a signal to US President Donald Trump that London can contribute to strengthening European security.
For its part, the Russian Defense Ministry denied that its UAVs have violated Estonian or any other European country's airspace in recent times, while asserting that they only flew over neutral waters.
