NATO’s Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force (NISRF) flew its RQ-4D Phoenix unmanned aircraft into the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom (GUIK) gap in July 2025, marking the first time the Alliance’s high-altitude, long-endurance drone operated from a Finnish base rather than its home station in southern Italy.
“It is an honor for Finland to host a capability like this. For a small nation, this kind of capacity is not affordable. But as a member of the Alliance, this is now also at our disposal. This is [an important aspect] of our integration into NATO,” said Gen. Janne Jaakkola, Finnish Defense Forces commander. “I am very pleased that NISRF was able to deploy to Finland and operate from our Air Base in Pirkkala.”
The mission departed Pirkkala Air Base and penetrated the strategic North Atlantic corridor, a zone long regarded as an essential early-warning area for NATO maritime and air operations. Pilots and sensor operators launched the Phoenix to extend surveillance coverage closer to the High North, a region of growing geostrategic importance.
The RQ-4D Phoenix is a modified Global Hawk platform built by Northrop Grumman for NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance program. It flies at altitudes up to 18,000 meters and can remain airborne for more than 30 hours, providing persistent coverage across thousands of kilometers.
Onboard sensors include radar that can generate high-resolution images in all weather. The aircraft also carries wideband line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight data links to stream raw data to ground stations in near-real time.
Typically based at Sigonella Air Base in Sicily, the fleet of five Phoenix aircraft delivers ground surveillance capability across the Balkans, the Black Sea and North Africa. Operating temporarily from Pirkkala enabled NATO to position its ISR asset closer to emerging areas of interest, such as the GIUK gap, with minimal transit time.
The GIUK gap serves as a maritime chokepoint between northern European waters and the wider Atlantic, offering the only passage for submarines and surface vessels to transit between the Arctic and open ocean. It remains vital for monitoring commercial shipping and potential adversary naval movements. During the Cold War, the gap was the sole exit from the Soviet Northern Fleet’s bases in the Barents Sea to the Atlantic. Its deep waters and narrow channels made it a focal point for anti-submarine warfare and early warning patrols by NATO Allies.
“This first GIUK mission out of Finland reflects how far we’ve come in developing and applying NATO’s ISR capability,” said Brig. Gen. John B. Creel, NISRF commander. “It’s a result of close cooperation, adaptability and constant operational learning.”