A unit of the US Air Force will be coming to Iceland this September in order to conduct NATO exercises – the third such visit from the US since the NATO base in Keflavík closed in 2006.
The air force will be here from 6 to 24 September, Vísir reports, invited by the Icelandic government. They will be conducting exercises in keeping with the obligation of NATO countries to protect Iceland’s air space.
About 175 airmen will be stationed here during this time, bringing with them ten F-15 fighter planes and a firefighter squadron. This marks an increase in the number of stationed US airmen in Iceland, as during the previous visit, only 110 arrived.
The ten F-15s will be arriving first, on 2 September, at Keflavík airport. There, they will conduct landing exercises, as well as buzzing to airports in Akureyri and Egilsstaðir.
When the NATO base was still in operation in Keflavík, such exercises were relatively common practice. Today, patrolling Icelandic airspace is a duty shared by several NATO countries, most recently including France and Denmark.