NATO expands Mihai Kogălniceanu airbase in Romania

Six RAF Eurofighter Typhoons sit on the taxiway, engines roaring on two, as a group of workers move rapidly across the grassy field, including a touch down to complete before take-off.

In the distance, a cloud of mud rises in the summer haze at the construction site of a 3.5 km (2 mi) long second runway next to the first runway. The new wind coming from the north affects the untouched hangars and used spaces.

Mihai Kogălniceanu (MK) Airbase takes its name from the village within reach, which is named after a nineteenth-century type of meat presser.

Now, this is not the right environment for what is happening in the largest NATO base in Europe, even larger than Ramstein in Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin described his conflict in Ukraine over the issue as the fact that NATO is encroaching on Russia’s part of the ECU. Based on their aggression, additional items are advanced on the NATO chessboard.

The MK base will soon house a squadron of Romanian F-16s – recently purchased from Norway – in addition to MQ-9 Reaper drones, and a military city in which NATO troops, air forces and naval groups from 32 countries will rotate. ,

The original arrivals are the Finns. Only 20 km (12 mi) from the balmy coastline, the base is 300 km from Odessa, as fighter aircraft fly, and 400 km from Sevastopol in Russian-occupied Crimea.

This is the third and final tour of duty here for RAF pilot Flight Lieutenant Charlie Tagg.

“The US has a very large presence here, a lot of infrastructure, housing, people and equipment.”

He says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has changed both the grounds over which it flies and the strategic posture of the challenge. In 2021, on their final tour, NATO fighter pilots flew out of global waters within the Atlantic. However they now stick to a 12 nautical mile zone over Romanian and Bulgarian territorial waters “to avoid misunderstandings, tense situations with the Russians”.

“Earlier we were here as a deterrent to any Russian aggression. Now it serves as a reassurance to other NATO countries like Romania that we are here, and we are ready to defend.

He says intercepting Russian aircraft had a negative reputation since their arrival, although several missions had previously been conducted over the Baltic.

“They will simply make a mistake – it is not against any international law, they are entitled to do that. But we will place an aircraft next to that opponent aircraft. Ostensibly, it shows the Russians… that we are active. We are flying with armed jets, so it sends a clear message.

“And it also provides valuable intelligence information for us, we’re recording the serial numbers of the planes and the weapons that are on those planes, so that’s factored into the whole intelligence picture as well.”