The Vilkas Air Tactical Detachment performs four air policing missions during the last week

• Spanish Eurofighter jets from Wing 11 have carried out twelve air policing missions since the start of their deployment in August

The Spanish Vilkas Air Tactical Detachment (DAT), deployed at the Šiauliai air base (Lithuania), has carried out four A Scramble air policing missions in the last week.

Specifically, these A Scramble missions resulted in the interception of eight Russian aircraft operating over the Baltic Sea. On the 18th, in a single activation, two Flanker fighters were identified flying towards Kaliningrad without activating their transponders and without contact with air traffic control services.

On 20 September, two Russian Sukhoi SU-30s were intercepted in a first activation, while in the second, the aircraft returned to their place of origin before the interception was completed, so the CAOC-U ordered the Spanish aircraft to return to Siauliai air base.

These missions are carried out in response to air alerts over the detachment's area of responsibility and are part of the Alliance's Enhanced Air Policing (eAP) mission in the Baltic countries.

Lieutenant Colonel Francisco Holgado del Águila, commander of DAT Vilkas, points out that "we have been deployed for almost two months and, in addition to carrying out air policing missions, we have participated in numerous exercises and operations with other NATO countries. All these activities allow us to demonstrate our interoperability and verify the high level of training of the Eurofighter and A400M crews, as well as the airmen who make up the contingent."

In total, this detachment has carried out twelve air policing missions since its activation at the beginning of August, three during its first month in the area of operations and another nine in September.

Air policing missions

Air policing missions are initiated following an alert from the Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem (CAOC-U), located in Germany. The crews of the Eurofighter aircraft of the 11th Wing of the Air and Space Force (EA) have a maximum of 15 minutes to take off on a mission to reconnoitre, identify and, if necessary, neutralise any aerial objects detected in their area of responsibility.

A total of 12 missions of this type have been conducted. Three of them in August, reconnaissance missions over the Baltic Sea, to which another nine have now been added in September, seven over traffic in the Baltic Sea and another two over unconfirmed objects.

In the first two weeks of September, five missions were carried out. On the 9th, the first air police take-off order was received. NATO's integrated air defence and anti-missile system had detected unidentified traffic coming from the Kaliningrad region, flying northwards, close to the sovereign airspace of the Baltic republics. The crews identified the aircraft as an Ilyushin IL-76, a Russian-flagged cargo plane.

That same afternoon, the Vilkas aircraft were again activated by the CAOC-U to reconnoitre traffic without a flight plan over the Gulf of Finland. After identifying the aircraft, a Tupolev TU-154 personnel transport aircraft, the Spanish fighters completed the mission and returned to base. The CAOC-U then ordered reconnaissance of unknown traffic in the same area, which turned out to be a Russian surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft, model Ilyushin IL-20.

The following day, Eurofighter jets were scrambled twice, once in the morning in response to an unidentified object with a flight profile similar to that of drones over Lithuanian territory, and again at dusk in response to another object that entered Latvian airspace. In both cases, radar lost contact with the objects before the aircraft reached the affected area.

On 13 September, two new air policing missions were carried out to reconnoitre a trail originating in Kaliningrad that had no communication with air traffic control services. Once the reconnaissance was complete, the fighter jets confirmed that it was a TU-154, as stated in the flight plan.

DAT Vilkas: Spain's contribution to air protection on the eastern flank

DAT Vilkas (which means “wolf” in Lithuanian) has been transferred to NATO under control of the Commander of Operations Command.

It is scheduled to last between August and November 2025 from the Siauliai air base in northern Lithuania.

In terms of its composition, it consists of almost 200 airmen from up to 15 different units of the Air and Space Force, and has eight Eurofighter aircraft from Wing 11 (Morón de la Frontera, Seville), as well as an A400M refuelling aircraft from Wing 31 (Zaragoza).