The Gripen fighter jets in the Baltic Air Defence Readiness Unit of the Hungarian Defence Forces have been called on their first live Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) scramble, the Hungarian Ministry of Defence’s website Honvédelem.hu reports. The live alert was triggered by unidentified aircraft not willing to engage in radio communications with air traffic control entering the international air space above the Baltic Sea on the night of Friday, 8 August.
The Hungarian fighter jets successfully intercepted what later was identified as a Russian aircraft at 11:26pm local time, 11,000 metres (36,000 feet) high in the air, in accordance with international procedural rules. After the capture and identification, the jets have safely returned to their base in Lithuania.
NATO’s Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission has been in charge of securing the international and national airspace over the Baltic Sea since 2004, when the three small countries in the region—Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia—joined the military alliance. The small nations joining lacked the air defence capacities to defend their air space on their own. Finland, also in the Baltic region, was one of the most recent additions to NATO, joining in April 2023.
From 1 August 2025, for a period of four months, the Hungarian Defence Forces will serve as the lead nation in air policing duties in the Baltic countries, together with Spain and Italy, under NATO command. Approximately 80 soldiers and four JAS-39 Gripen fighter jets are taking part in the mission, the press release on Honvédelem.hu has shared. This is the fourth time Hungary was called on to take part in the NATO mission in the Baltics, after 2015, 2019, and 2022.
Minister of Defence Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky has celebrated the Hungarian Air Force’s successful mission over the Baltic Sea with a Facebook post.
In February 2024, the Hungarian Air Force acquired four new JAS-39C Gripen fighter jets, produced by the Swedish aerospace and defence company Saab AB, from the Swedish government for an undisclosed amount. However, those jets are valued at approximately $30–40 million per unit. This was announced at a joint press conference between Prime Ministers Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Ulf Kristersson of Sweden, as part of the negotiations to have the Hungarian National Assembly approve Sweden’s NATO accession.
Thus, the Hungarian Air Force’s fleet now has 18 Gripen fighter jets, four of which are now deployed on Baltic air space patrol duty.
Related articles:
