Hungarian Air Force Ends Its Air Policing Mission in Croatia

From January 1, Croatia will take over the continuous defense of its airspace with its own Rafale fighter jets as part of NATO’s integrated air and missile defense system, reports Dnevno.

During the transition period of training Croatian pilots, the surveillance and protection of Croatian airspace was carried out from air bases in neighboring NATO member states, Italy and Hungary.

These tasks were carried out with Italian Eurofighter Typhoon and Hungarian Gripen fighter jets on the basis of technical agreements between the defense ministries.

Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky with his Croatian counterpart Ivan Anušić in Zagreb. Photo: Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky Facebook

The commander of the Croatian Air Force, Krešimir Ražov, explained the details to HRT:

We will monitor and protect our airspace as part of NATO’s integrated air and missile defense and as part of what is known as airspace surveillance.

Air policing is the colloquial term for monitoring and protecting airspace in peacetime, and with multi-role combat aircraft, we will actively participate in this 365 days a year, around the clock, day and night, on 15-minute alert.”

Hangars at the “Pukovnik Marko Živković” air base, where Rafale fighter jets are housed Photo: MORH/ F. Klen/Wikimedia Commons

In May 2021, Croatia decided to purchase 12 used Rafale F-3Rs from the French Air Force (including two two-seaters). The Rafales are to replace the Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21s in the Croatian Air Force. The contract volume for the 12 aircraft, flight simulator, spare parts, and training amounts to €999 million. The contract was signed on November 25, 2021. On October 2, 2023, the Croatians took delivery of their first Rafale, and at the end of April 2024, the transfer to Croatia began.

The last of the 12 Rafales were delivered in April 2025.

The Rafales are operated by the 191st Fighter Squadron (191st Eskadrila Lovačkih Aviona), which is stationed at the military section of Zagreb Airport.

A Croatian Rafale fighter jet performs a simulated interception of a US Air Force B-52H Stratofortress during the “Onyx Cross over Europe” exercise on March 3, 2025. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

The Rafale (French for gust or windburst) is a twin-engine multi-role fighter aircraft manufactured by the French company Dassault Aviation. It was developed almost entirely independently after France withdrew from the Eurofighter consortium. Technically, the Rafale, together with the Eurofighter and the Saab JAS 39 Gripen, belongs to a group of modern European fighter aircraft with delta wings and canards.

Due to its design as a light, versatile, land- and carrier-based multi-role fighter aircraft, the Rafale differs significantly from these models in a number of respects.

In 2025, the Hungarian army demonstrated its operational readiness as the leading nation in airspace surveillance in the Baltic region for the fourth time and also took over the protection of the airspace of Slovakia, Croatia, and Slovenia.

Croatia’s Skies to be Guarded by Hungarian Fighter Jets