The Minister for the Armed Forces, James Heappey MP, has visited an RAF detachment in Poland that are carrying out training with the Polish Air Force in Poznan.
The Defence Minister, together with the UK’s Defence Attaché to Poland, Colonel Tom Blythe RM arrived on a CASA C-295M tactical transport aircraft of the Polish Air Force, after attending the Warsaw Security Forum. On arrival, he was greeted by Base Commander, Colonel Piatek and the RAF personnel who are conducting a two-week deployment at the Polish Air Base.
The operational detachment, codenamed Op Carson, involves joint combat air training with NATO allies to develop tactics based from Poznan-Krzesiny Airbase.
“It’s wonderful to see both the Royal Air Force and the Polish Air Force working so closely together and we are grateful to Poland for making the Typhoon detachment so welcome. I am confident that Aviators in both Air Forces will learn a huge amount from working with each other over the next 2 weeks”.
James Heappey MP
Defence Minister
“The UK and Poland have a historic partnership in defence and it’s a privilege to be part of a deployment that demonstrates our unwavering commitment to maintaining those deep ties. We are looking forward in continuing to strengthen this invaluable relationship by training together to achieve one of our common goals of bolstering the security of NATO’s Eastern Flank.”
Sqn Ldr McGuigan
Detachment’s Chief of Staff
The visit follows the Warsaw Security Forum where the Defence Minister highlighted the significance of the UK-Polish defence relationship and the need to maintain support for Ukraine and keep up the pressure on Russia. The Minister and his team will next visit Rzeszow where they will be shown the Sky Sabre air defence system which is deployed alongside Polish and US forces.
