The Air Surveillance Wing (ASW) is one of the two tactical units in the Estonian Air Force established on 1 January 1998 with its headquarters located in the Ämari Air Base in Ämari.
Completing the mission through teamwork and recognition of people.
To safeguard the integrity of Estonian national airspace by contributing to the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defence System (NATINAMDS) with robust early warning and air defence mission command and control in peacetime, crisis, and war.
The Engineering and Technical Group provides vital surveillance input from five military radar sites all over Estonia.
In addition, the Engineering and Technical Group manages tactical datalinks and ground-air-ground radios to enable the Ämari Command and Reporting Centre (the second group of the ASW) to produce its recognized air picture and command and control air defence assets within its area of operational responsibility.
The ASW’s radar sites are newly procured or recently modernized, providing excellent coverage over the relatively flat landscape of Estonia, thus exceeding even NATO’s minimum military requirements. The Ämari Command and Reporting Post also supports NATO’s Baltic air policing day-to-day operations. Over recent years, the Ämari CRP has had numerous opportunities to be part of allied training events in the Baltic region, which has greatly increased the proficiency of its operational personnel.
The third group of the ASW is permanently located in Lithuania as the Combined Command Reporting Centre (CRC) Karmelava’s Estonian Detachment, which, together with Latvian and Lithuanian detachments, supports NATO’s Baltic air policing operations within the framework of BALTNET. The ASW trains and qualifies its active duty personnel on location, in cooperation with civil enterprises, or in cooperation with our NATO and non-NATO allies. Within the framework of allied cooperation, the ASW has supported NATO’s air policing mission in Iceland several times with fighter controllers and fighter allocators together with the US and Royal Danish Air Forces.
Major Tõnis Pärn
Commander of the Air Surveillance Wing
BALTNET (Baltic Air Surveillance Network and Control System) is an integral part of the NATINAMDS across the territories of the Republic of Estonia, the Republic of Latvia and the Republic of Lithuania.
BALTNET is a military cooperation framework, based on mutual trust and respect, for sharing surveillance data, tactical datalinks, and ground-air-ground radios for a common purpose.
BALTNET enables the three Baltic States to enhance each nation’s limited capabilities into a unified situation awareness and Air Command and Control (C2) capability. This ensures that the Air Surveillance and Control System (ASACS) unit, e.g the Command and Reporting Post, of any of the countries is equally capable of supporting NATO IAMD (Integrated Air and Missile Defence) operations over the airspace of the other two nations. In addition to national ASACS units, BALTNET includes a fourth unit: the CRC Karmelava (located near Kaunas, Lithuania) where the air force personnel of all three Baltic States together support NATINAMDS operations and NATO Baltic air policing operations.
Last updated: 8. January 2025, 17:30
