Americans To Patrol Icelandic Airspace Next Month

The US Air Force will be participating in NATO-led airspace patrols of Iceland this Monday.

The Icelandic Coast Guard announced that NATO-led air patrols are ready to begin again. Kicking things off this time around will be American forces, set to arrive on April 4.

The air patrols will be conducted by the Air National Guard of Westfield, Massachusetts. 150 servicepeople will take part in the project, in addition to employees of the Combined Air Operations Center in Uedem, Germany. The air patrol will be bringing four F-15C fighter planes and a KC-135 fueling plane.

These exercises are not related to recent news that American forces will be patrolling the North Atlantic for Russian submarines. Rather, this air patrol will be situated in Akureyri and Egilsstaðir, and will be present there from April 5 to April 7.

As Iceland has no standing army, but is a member of NATO, the country regularly allows other NATO countries to conduct air patrol exercises around the country.