Italian Air Force To Patrol Iceland’s Airspace

Four Eurofighter Typhoon F-2000 fighter jets from the Italian air force will be conducting exercises and patrols of Icelandic air space in the coming days, RÚV reports.

These jets will be accompanied by some 140 servicemen and pilots, in addition to employees of the NATO base in Uedem, Germany. These exercises will be held in Akureyri and Egilsstaðir from September 6 to 12, with support and services from Keflavík.

Iceland has no military of its own, but is a member country of NATO. As such, as a part of the country’s obligations to the organisation, they not only pay in, but also allow other NATO countries to conduct exercises and patrol its air space.

Numerous countries have conducted these patrols of Iceland in the past, including Canada and Germany. The US, which used to have a base in Keflavík until 2006, still conducts submarine surveillance of the North Atlantic from this location.