With the Spanish military on the Black Sea front

The Black Sea is today a war zone if one takes into account that countries like Ukraine and Russia are washed by its waters, hotter than ever -figuratively speaking- due to the current war tension.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
24 February 2023 Friday 15:27
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With the Spanish military on the Black Sea front

The Black Sea is today a war zone if one takes into account that countries like Ukraine and Russia are washed by its waters, hotter than ever -figuratively speaking- due to the current war tension. The Spanish Air Force has deployed 169 troops in Romania, another of the countries with a coast on that inland sea only connected to the Aegean by a narrow passage, the Bosphorus. The Ministry of Defense has moved said contingent there in aid of one of its NATO allies. The war is very close. Crimea is off the Romanian coast.

The Spanish doctrine within the Atlantic alliance up to now has consisted of going on a support mission to any ally that requested it and was possible at that time to compensate for the fact that it never reaches the levels of investment in defense required by the agreements of the organization. That could change since President Pedro Sánchez has promoted a significant increase in the military budget.

The two missions that Spain currently has in Romania are born from that desire for presence and commitment that, while not new, since its most distant antecedents date back to the Balkan war, has been urged by the war in Ukraine.

Romania has a border with that country invaded by Russia and the degree of alarm there is high. War is very close and the means of defense and control enjoyed by the Bucharest Government are limited, if not somewhat obsolete.

The Viespe air tactical detachment is commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Gonzalo Tortosa Méndez. This military chief of the Air Force has 130 troops under his orders, 12 of them combat pilots like the mission chief himself. They work at the Borcea airbase, located 150 kilometers east of Bucharest. Eight Spanish F-18 fighters are deployed at these Romanian facilities to carry out patrol missions in Romanian airspace.

At the same time, and also in charge of Air Force personnel, a long-range tactical radar was installed last October. The gigantic sensor is capable of penetrating almost 450 kilometers into the Black Sea. Its reach goes beyond the Crimean Peninsula. The staff, a total of 39 people, and the equipment that allows for electronic surveillance of the sea and part of the Ukrainian coast, are located at the Schitu base, about 250 kilometers east of Bucharest and barely 30 kilometers from the port city. of Constance.

Lieutenant Colonel Tortosa, responsible for the mission of the F-18 fighters, is 50 years old and has served 30 years. He has participated in three previous missions abroad. He understands, shares and participates in the alert routines experienced by combat pilots like himself. These elite soldiers follow more or less fixed patterns such as attendance at previous meetings or briefings, as they are often called -the penetration of English as a language within NATO is a reality-, or as the long waits during the guards, ready to get on their devices in less than 15 minutes if a scramble alert occurs. It is one that indicates that an unidentified or enemy aircraft has entered the airspace that is protected and must take off to intercept it.

Captain Juan Enrique López Martínez is a pilot and knows very well how those hours of waiting are lived, which can be interrupted at any time when the alarm goes off. "The most veterans already have our mechanisms to be alert without showing concern, the youngsters tend to be more active while waiting and review the mission over and over again," says this 38-year-old from Murcia who, in addition to being a combat pilot, is the chief of mission operations.

López is one of those soldiers who have become officers after being soldiers. He already knows what it is like to patrol the airspace of an allied country with his plane and face Russian planes, in this case Estonia, where he was already stationed in 2017.

Second Lieutenant José Martín Ronco, 53 years old and 36 years of service, is a quality inspector for all F-18 weapons tasks. The numerous ground support personnel required by these fighters is very bulky, which explains why of the 130 people that make up the Viespe detachment, only 13 (including the chief) are pilots and the rest are in charge of ensuring that the aircraft is in perfect condition. conditions.

Ronco knows that this, his seventh, is his last mission, at least in his esteemed 15th Wing of the Air Force because he will be promoted to non-commissioned officer very soon and he will have to change posting. "I'm in love with this plane," he tells La Vanguardia as he walks through the upper fuselage of the plane, just landed on the Borcea runway.

Working with the low temperatures that occur in winter in that part of Romania where they now work has been a huge challenge for the maintenance staff, even more than for the equipment. Operating in these conditions for the armament, mechanical and electronic forces has been arduous. “Last week we had a wind chill of minus 17 degrees Celsius,” says Ronco.

At least when off-duty personnel return to the hotel that the Ministry of Defense has chosen to house the contingent at night, the mission members settle in the comfort of heat and hot water. The Romanian facilities did not allow the accommodation of such a large contingent and for this reason they have resorted to a hotel establishment, in which they also coincide with their colleagues from the Air Force who operate the radar located at the Schitu base.

The Tigru detachment is led by Commander Juan Diego Narbona León. He has a very long experience abroad. At 48 years old, he has participated in 15 international missions in countries such as Afghanistan, Gabon, Lithuania, Estonia or Turkey. A significant part of his military career has, however, been spent in Germany, flying AWACS aircraft carrying airborne radars. He has completed more than 2,500 flight hours in that aircraft, many of them as mission chief (tactical director, again, English).

"We bring to this mission a radar with a much greater range than the one available to the Romanians, we double it," says the commander from his office at the small Schitu base.

“The radar has its eyes on with a range of 450 kilometers, the entire Black Sea area. If we take the map it could be seen clearly that we have coverage in a part of Ukraine”. The person speaking is Second Lieutenant Joaquín Lara Cabello, 54 years old and 35 years of service. He is the senior technical manager of the AN/TPS-43M radar that Spain has deployed in Romania.

This man from Madrid who has lived in Seville for 32 years has participated in seven international missions. He is an expert in fixed and mobile speed cameras.

All of them, the members of the Viespe air tactical detachment, with their combat planes, and those of the Tigru, with their electronic eyes monitoring the Black Sea, are part of the NATO presence operations on its eastern border, double reinforced since the war from Ukraine.