Hungary’s Gripen warbirds back in their nest

After six months away from home, the 12 Swedish-made JAS-39 Gripen multirole military aircraft of the Hungarian Air Force are back at their home base in Kecskemét in central Hungary, news agency MTI reports.

The previously military-only Kecskemét airport was developed into a dual-purpose airport for both civilian and military use with funding from NATO’s security investment program and the Hungarian government’s “Modern Cities” initiative.

Hungary’s fighter aircraft fleet currently has 12 operational Gripens, part of which regularly serve within the Baltic Air Policing system instated by NATO in 2004.

Estonia and the two other Baltic states, Latvia and Lithuania, do not have air patrol capabilities and air policing missions are carried out by their NATO allies in four-month rotations from the Ämari Air Base in Harju County in Estonia. Usual deployments consist of four fighter aircraft with between 50 and 100 support personnel.

The air forces of the Czech Republic and Poland have also served in these rotations.

All images: MTI/Sándor Újvári