U.S. Air Force to send F-15 jets to Finland
The US Air Force will send six F-15s in Finland this spring for exercises that will operate from a base about 100 miles from the border with Russia, military officials say.
The six jets from the 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field Air National Guard base in Oregon will fly training missions with Finnish forces as part of the Atlantic resolve operation, which the United States began in 2014 to reassure NATO allies after the military intervention of Russia in Ukraine.
The United States requested the exercises, said Maj. Sheryll I. US Klinkel Europe air forces. If Finland is not part of NATO, it shares a 813 miles to the border with Russia and has worked with the United States several times in the past few years.
"More than that education has flown from Norway, Sweden and other neighboring nations. However, we never had F-15s conducting a training development in Finland, "the Klinkel said.
Increasingly aggressive Russian behavior over the past several years, prompting various countries across Europe to review its defense capabilities and expand cooperation with other states that share their concerns, according to Stephen Sestanovich, senior partner studies Russian at the Council on Foreign Relations .
"This is a strong tendency in Scandinavia, particularly where countries such as Norway and Denmark, which was NATO for decades, and others, such as Sweden and Finland, which are traditionally neutral, wondering: How can we work if you come under pressure from Russia; »Sestanovich said. "And the US is asking: you can send a message to Moscow help?"
About 100 airmen from Oregon basis will accompany the Jets on May 9 to 22 development, said main Sgt. Jennifer d. Shirar National Guard Oregon air. US troops will operate from Kuopio, Finland, which is about 100 miles west of the border with Russia.
The exercise was first reported last week by the Finnish public broadcaster YLE vector, called large by Finnish standards.
"A training session of US military aircraft of this scale not previously taken part in Finland," said YLE.
The growth in May is just the latest of American aircraft in Europe as part of the Atlantic resolve. F-22s, A-10s and F-16s have been part of previous exercises with F-15s.
News of Finnish development comes just days after the Defense Ministry announced it to quadrupling $ 3.4 billion for the European initiative assurance money in an attempt to deter Russian aggression against NATO Allies.
The Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev highlighted the strained relations between the nation and the West on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
"The NATO policy regarding Russia remained hostile and opaque. One could go as far as to say that we have slid back into a new Cold War, "Medvedev said. "Almost every day we asked one of the scariest threats to NATO as a whole or in Europe or in the United States."
NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Gen. Philip Breedlove, told CNN that the Allied group does not agree with the assessment of Dmitry Medvedev.
"The NATO does not want to see a Cold War," he said. "We are not talking about it. It is what we want to avoid or foresee happening. ... We are a defensive alliance, which wraps and ourselves to face a challenge ... [by] a nation that has decided once again to use force to change internationally recognized borders, and so we take those appropriate steps to be able to assure, defend and prevent. "
Tensions between the West and Russia have increased in recent years, largely - at least in the view of the West - because of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, and its support of separatists elsewhere in Eastern Ukraine.
But the increased military cooperation between the United States and several European nations is also a direct result of Russian military activities as its intervention in Syria and amplified submarine presence in the Nordic waters, Sestanovich said.
"European governments do not like what they see, and try to tell the Russians to cool," he said.
The six jets from the 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field Air National Guard base in Oregon will fly training missions with Finnish forces as part of the Atlantic resolve operation, which the United States began in 2014 to reassure NATO allies after the military intervention of Russia in Ukraine.
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| The Strike Eagle is a version of the air superiority fighter adpated to perform ground -strike missions. With a crew of two, the twin-jet can carry and deploy most weapons in the Air Force inventory and operate in any weather. The F-15E was first delivered in 1988. The Air Force lists 219 in its fleet. |
The United States requested the exercises, said Maj. Sheryll I. US Klinkel Europe air forces. If Finland is not part of NATO, it shares a 813 miles to the border with Russia and has worked with the United States several times in the past few years.
"More than that education has flown from Norway, Sweden and other neighboring nations. However, we never had F-15s conducting a training development in Finland, "the Klinkel said.
Increasingly aggressive Russian behavior over the past several years, prompting various countries across Europe to review its defense capabilities and expand cooperation with other states that share their concerns, according to Stephen Sestanovich, senior partner studies Russian at the Council on Foreign Relations .
"This is a strong tendency in Scandinavia, particularly where countries such as Norway and Denmark, which was NATO for decades, and others, such as Sweden and Finland, which are traditionally neutral, wondering: How can we work if you come under pressure from Russia; »Sestanovich said. "And the US is asking: you can send a message to Moscow help?"
About 100 airmen from Oregon basis will accompany the Jets on May 9 to 22 development, said main Sgt. Jennifer d. Shirar National Guard Oregon air. US troops will operate from Kuopio, Finland, which is about 100 miles west of the border with Russia.
The exercise was first reported last week by the Finnish public broadcaster YLE vector, called large by Finnish standards.
"A training session of US military aircraft of this scale not previously taken part in Finland," said YLE.
The growth in May is just the latest of American aircraft in Europe as part of the Atlantic resolve. F-22s, A-10s and F-16s have been part of previous exercises with F-15s.
News of Finnish development comes just days after the Defense Ministry announced it to quadrupling $ 3.4 billion for the European initiative assurance money in an attempt to deter Russian aggression against NATO Allies.
The Prime Minister of Russia Dmitry Medvedev highlighted the strained relations between the nation and the West on Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
"The NATO policy regarding Russia remained hostile and opaque. One could go as far as to say that we have slid back into a new Cold War, "Medvedev said. "Almost every day we asked one of the scariest threats to NATO as a whole or in Europe or in the United States."
NATO Supreme Allied Commander in Europe, Gen. Philip Breedlove, told CNN that the Allied group does not agree with the assessment of Dmitry Medvedev.
"The NATO does not want to see a Cold War," he said. "We are not talking about it. It is what we want to avoid or foresee happening. ... We are a defensive alliance, which wraps and ourselves to face a challenge ... [by] a nation that has decided once again to use force to change internationally recognized borders, and so we take those appropriate steps to be able to assure, defend and prevent. "
Tensions between the West and Russia have increased in recent years, largely - at least in the view of the West - because of Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula, and its support of separatists elsewhere in Eastern Ukraine.
But the increased military cooperation between the United States and several European nations is also a direct result of Russian military activities as its intervention in Syria and amplified submarine presence in the Nordic waters, Sestanovich said.
"European governments do not like what they see, and try to tell the Russians to cool," he said.
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