The ceremonial opening of a new, multi-million-euro airfield took place Wednesday at the Ämari Air Base, about 40 kilometers southeast of Tallinn. The expanded landing facilities, which took three years to construct, give Ämari the capacity to handle up to 16 NATO fighters, 20 transport planes and to serve up to 2,000 people per day.
The improvements were made so that Ämari could better host NATO allies and contribute to the alliance’s air security mission in the Baltics.
“You could say that it wasn’t just the Estonian Air Force that got a base, but our allies now also have a home, or if you prefer, a nest in Estonia where they can land and rest,” Defense Minister Jaak Aaviksoosaid during a live interview on ETV.
The head of the Estonian Air Force, Brigadier General Valeri Saar, said it is possible that the NATO planes patrolling Baltic airspace from Lithuania could one day be based in Ämari. He noted that there is already an agreement whereby allied pilots will begin conducting training flights at the base in October.
The air base construction project should be completed in its entirety by 2012 at a cost of 96 million euros.
In a statement, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves acknowledged the high cost of the improvements, but underscored the importance of contributing to NATO efforts.
“The construction of the Ämari Air Base, which was jointly financed by the Estonian state and NATO, is a perfect expression of the solidarity between allies in everyday life,” the president said in the statement. “As we know, NATO covered almost 35 percent of the cost of the project – which is a considerable sum, given that the total cost of the project is more than a billion kroons. This shows that NATO’s allies understand the importance to the alliance as a whole of ensuring the security of its new member states.”
Originally built during the Soviet occupation, Ämari is the Estonian Air Force’s only active base.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.