From July until early November, Italian Air Force Euro fighter F-2000s flew alongside Bulgarian MiG-29s at Graf Ignatievo air base — jointly securing the skies over the region as part of NATO’s Enhanced Air Policing mission.
WITH ITS ACCESSION to NATO in 2004, the airspace of Bulgaria and its resident fighter aircraft were included in the alliance’s NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (NATINAMDS). A continuous mission both in peacetime and times of conflict, NATINAMDS serves to safeguard alliance territory under the watchful eye of the headquarters in Ramstein, Germany, and its two Combined Air Operations Centres (CAOCs) at Uedem, Germany, and Torrejón, Spain. In Bulgaria, this mission is something of a challenge, faced as it is by tired MiG-29
