Canadian Hornets Touch Down on Estonian Highway, Demonstrating NATO Readiness Amid Russian Threat

Canadian CF-188 Hornets have landed on a highway in Estonia for the first time, marking a milestone in NATO’s push to make its air forces more flexible and harder to target. The operation, conducted as part of Exercise TARASSIS 25, took place on October 13 and formed a key component of NATO’s Agile Combat Employment (ACE) initiative, Army Recognition reported on October 15.

According to the Royal Canadian Air Force, the twin-engine fighters touched down on the Jägala–Käravete (Piibe) highway in northern Estonia in a demonstration designed to prove that allied aircraft can operate from austere and dispersed locations.

According to Army Recognition, the training involved Estonian and Italian aircraft as well, underscoring the alliance’s focus on survivability and rapid mobility along its northeastern flank.

The move also ties into Canada’s ongoing Operation REASSURANCE deployment in Europe—part of its long-term deterrence effort on NATO’s eastern frontier. By successfully executing highway landings, Army Recognition noted, Canada proved that Agile Combat Employment is now a practiced reality rather than a theoretical doctrine, showing that its legacy Hornet fleet remains capable of high-end operations while the country transitions to the F-35A.

The CF-188 Hornet, Canada’s version of the F/A-18A/B, remains in service as a multirole fighter and has undergone several modernization programs, including the Hornet Extension Project.

These upgrades include improved sensors, advanced short- and medium-range missiles, survivability enhancements, and safety systems like Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance—improvements aimed to allow the aircraft to operate from rough or improvised surfaces if primary airbases come under attack.

The Hornet fleet, first introduced in the early 1980s, has flown NORAD patrols across North America and seen combat in multiple theaters, from Iraq and the Balkans to Libya and Syria. While Canada prepares to replace it with the F-35 later this decade, the CF-188 remains central to Canada’s NATO commitments.

The Baltic region has become one of NATO’s most active air policing zones. Russian military aircraft frequently violate or approach the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania without flight plans or transponder signals.

In response, NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission—often involving Canadian, German, British, or even Hungarian jets—regularly scrambles to intercept and escort Russian planes away from allied airspace. The highway landing exercise reinforces NATO’s ability to respond to such incursions even under conditions of disrupted infrastructure or sustained aerial pressure.

According to Army Recognition, strategically, the ability to operate from highways in the Baltics signals that NATO can sustain air operations even if major bases are degraded or destroyed.

Such dispersion complicates enemy targeting and reinforces deterrence, particularly near the Russian border. Conducting this proof-of-concept alongside Estonian and Italian aircraft also strengthens coalition interoperability in logistics, command, and ground support.

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Earlier, Estonia’s defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, said Tallinn is prepared to host allied fighter jets capable of carrying nuclear weapons, including British aircraft, following last week’s incursion by Russian warplanes into Estonian airspace.

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