Six Typhoon fighter jets of the British Air Force arrived in eastern Poland today to carry out enhanced air reconnaissance patrols (eAP) in the eastern wing of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), and will be carried out together with Sweden for the first time.

This is also the first time that Sweden has sent military aircraft to another NATO member state to participate in NATO air reconnaissance missions since it officially became a member of NATO in March last year. The Swedish Air Force deployed Gripen fighter jets to Poland.

The British Ministry of Defense said that Baron Vernon Coaker, the deputy defense minister in charge of international relations and defense diplomacy, also flew to Poland today and held talks with Polish Defense Minister Władysław Marcin Kosiniak-Kamysz and Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson.

The United Kingdom is the main country in NATO’s air reconnaissance missions. The Ministry of National Defense pointed out that last year alone, six Typhoon fighters and more than 200 personnel were stationed in Romania in April to carry out NATO’s southeast wing eAP; in August, four British Air Force stealth fighters F-35B were deployed to Iceland to defend NATO’s high northern airspace above the Arctic Circle.

According to NATO data, after Russia invaded and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea Peninsula in 2014, NATO introduced the eAP mechanism in NATO’s eastern wing that year, including strengthening the existing air reconnaissance deployment in the Baltic countries, as well as the air force reconnaissance capabilities of Bulgaria and Romania, and sending additional military aircraft to Poland.

Since 2008, NATO member states have regularly deployed fighters to Iceland, replacing the US air reconnaissance missions performed in Iceland from 1951 to 2006.