site.btaJoint Training Mission to Take Place in Northeastern Bulgarian Airspace within NATO's Neptune Strike 26-1 Enhanced Vigilance Activity

A joint training mission will take place on March 26 and 27 in Bulgarian airspace (above the Novo Selo Training Area and in the Northeast of the country) as part of NATO's Neptune Strike 26-1 Enhanced Vigilance Activity, the Bulgarian Defence Ministry said in a press release on Wednesday.

"Neptune Strike demonstrates NATO's ability to employ and integrate multinational maritime and strike capabilities on a short notice and at a large distance, as well as NATO's capacity to defend the entire territory of the Alliance by coordinated air, land, and sea actions," the Ministry pointed out.

NATO's Allied Command Operations described Neptune Strike 26-1 as an Enhanced Vigilance Activity with adjacent activity in the Mediterranean and Central-Eastern Europe. "Allied Striking capabilities from the French Carrier Strike Group, Italian Carrier Strike Group, and Turkish Expeditionary Strike Group will lead activity while integrating National and NATO forces to demonstrate Alliance readiness and adversary deterrence," the Allied Command specified.

"Those missions comprise the engagement of targets on firing ranges in Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. The executions proof  NATO’s long-range strike capabilities and the Alliance’s interoperability across the air, land and sea," it said, adding that Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Spain and the United States contribute to this first Neptune Strike iteration (March 25 - April 1, 2026).