Canadian CF-18 Hornets deploy to Romania

Last week, six Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CF-18 Hornets from 433 Tactical Fighter Squadron "Porcupine", based at CFB Bagotville (Que.), deployed to Mihail Kogalniceanu air base (Romania) to take up NATO’s enhanced Air Policing task. The deployment marks the fifth time since 2014, a Canadian detachment takes up NATO-duties at its south-eastern flank.

The detachment involved 145 personnel from all across the RCAF and is commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel David McLeod. The CF-18s were supported by a CC-150 Polaris tanker, as well as a number of CC-177 Globemasters and CC-130J Super Hercules in their voyage to Romania, the latter two types providing logistics support.

Controlled by the Combined Air Operations Centre in Torrejon (Spain), the CF-18s will fly NATO Air Policing duties along the shores of the Black Sea. Training with Romanian F-16s, MiG-21 LanceRs and other allies in the region will be part of the deployment as well.

For three of the six Hornets we have seen serials; these are 188757, 188769 and 188791. We are looking forward to the serials of other three aircraft.

Scramble had an exclusive visit to the Canadian detachment in Romania during a similar deployment in 2017, when these photos were taken.

All photos: RCAF & Scramble Magazine