Croatia started protecting its own airspace on 1 Jan 2026 with Rafale fighters under NATO’s IAMD, completing its MiG-21 transition and training phase.
NATO Allied Air Command (AIRCOM) said from Ramstein that Croatia has started patrolling its own airspace using Rafale multirole jets. Under NATO's Integrated Air and Missile Defence (IAMD) system, Croatia will take up national airspace protection tasks from 1 January 2026.
The change happened after a planned transition program in which Croatian pilots switched from legacy MiG-21 planes to the French-made Rafale. At the same time, technicians and support staff went through extensive training to satisfy NATO readiness standards.
During the conversion phase, NATO Allies supplied temporary peacetime airspace policing and protection from nearby member states Italy and Hungary through technical agreements between the respective defence ministries. According to AIRCOM, the Italian Air Force's Eurofighter Typhoons and the Hungarian Air Force's Gripen fighters did the interim air-policing job to make sure that there was always coverage while Croatia trained troops and set up operating procedures.
Croatia is anticipated to carry out the Air Policing operation around the clock, every day of the week starting in the new year.
AIRCOM also underlined that the handover strengthens NATO’s wider IAMD posture by adding a modern, interoperable national capability into the Allied network, supporting timely detection, identification and response to air threats through shared procedures and command-and-control (C2).
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte welcomed the milestone, stressing Croatia’s contribution to collective security since joining NATO in 2009, and noted that the Croatian Air Force has officially assumed full responsibility for protecting Croatian airspace as of 1 January 2026.
The 2026 air-policing milestone follows Croatia’s earlier induction of Rafale fighters into service as deliveries progressed from France.
Croatia's reporting in April 2024 stated that the Croatian Air Force received the first six Rafales into service, with the aircraft delivered to the 91st operational base near Zagreb after handover at the French Air and Space Force base at Mont-de-Marsan in 2023.
The package of 12 fighters includes extra Rafales from the French Air and Space Force. It include 10 Rafale C single-seat fighters and two Rafale B twin-seat fighters, all in the F3-R specification. The deal for €1.15 billion was concluded in November 2021.
Author: Özgür Ekşi
