US sends six F-22 fighter jets to Poland

Six American F-22 Raptor combat jets have been sent to Poland under Nato's Air Shielding programme, the US Air Force's Europe and Africa command announced on July 27.

The stealth tactical fighter aircraft, made by Lockheed Martin and Boeing, will be based at the Łask air base in central Poland, according to The First News.

The US Air Force wrote in a press release from its Ramstein headquarters in Germany that their latest F-22 Raptors had landed at RAF Lakenheath in the UK on their way to Poland, where they would support Nato's Air Shielding mission in Europe.

It added that the mission groups allied anti-aircraft and anti-missile units under Nato command and is intended to create an almost constant shield over the Baltic and Black seas, one of the new objectives outlined at a recent Nato summit in Madrid.

The US planes coming to Poland are from the 90th fighter squadron stationed at the Elmendorf-Richardson air base in Alaska.