Canada’s CF-188 Hornets Make First Highway Landing in Estonia to Advance NATO ACE Ops
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Canadian CF-188 Hornets made their first highway landing in Estonia during exercise TARASSIS 25, part of NATO’s Agile Combat Employment initiative. The training highlighted the alliance’s focus on flexible operations and rapid dispersal along its northeastern front.
On 13 October 2025, as reported by the Royal Canadian Air Force on X, CF-188 Hornets achieved a historic first by landing on Estonia’s Jägala–Käravete (Piibe) highway during exercise TARASSIS 25, a demonstration of Agile Combat Employment designed to prove operations from austere strips. The landings themselves took place on 13 October and formed part of a wider Baltic training effort alongside Estonian and Italian aircraft, underscoring NATO’s emphasis on dispersion and survivability near the Alliance’s northeastern flank. The event aligns with Canada’s ongoing Operation REASSURANCE posture in Europe, which prioritizes credible deterrence and rapid coalition integration.
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Canada’s first highway landing by CF-188s demonstrates that ACE is no longer a concept brief but an executable tactic in the Baltic theater, achieved with an aging yet upgraded fighter that still delivers credible combat power while Canada fields its next generation fleet (Picture source: Royal Canadian Air Force)
The CF-188 Hornet, Canada’s designation for the F/A-18A/B, is a twin-engine, multi-role fighter optimized for air defense, ground attack, and tactical support. It remains a versatile platform thanks to successive life-extension and capability upgrades, most recently the Hornet Extension Project, which adds improved sensors, new short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles, survivability enhancements, and safety upgrades such as Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance across much of the fleet. These improvements, paired with the aircraft’s robust undercarriage and twin-engine reliability, make it well-suited to operations on short or improvised surfaces when doctrine requires dispersed basing.
Selected in 1980 to replace several legacy fighter types, the CF-18 entered service in the early 1980s and has since accumulated a substantial operational record. Canadian Hornets have conducted NORAD air-sovereignty missions at home and deployed abroad in combat over Iraq and Kuwait in 1991, in NATO operations over the Balkans in the late 1990s, and in the enforcement of the Libya no-fly zone in 2011, as well as strike missions against ISIL under Operation IMPACT. While Canada is transitioning to the F-35A under the Future Fighter Capability Project, with initial deliveries planned from the latter half of this decade, the CF-188 continues to perform front-line duties as that handover unfolds.
Strategically, landing on Estonia’s Piibe highway signals that Canada and NATO can generate combat airpower even if main operating bases are degraded or under missile threat, a key objective of Agile Combat Employment. Dispersed highway operations complicate an adversary’s targeting calculus, reduce risk from concentrated infrastructure, and enable rapid repositioning across a dense Baltic road network that has hosted similar drills by Allies in past years. Conducting this proof-of-concept in concert with an Estonian Air Force M28 Skytruck and Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons also improves coalition command-and-control and ground support interoperability, strengthening deterrence along the Alliance’s northeastern frontier.
Canada’s first highway landing by CF-188s demonstrates that ACE is no longer a concept brief but an executable tactic in the Baltic theater, achieved with an aging yet upgraded fighter that still delivers credible combat power while Canada fields its next generation fleet. For Allies and observers, the message is clear: NATO air forces are investing in dispersion, flexibility, and speed, and Canada intends to be able to fight from wherever the mission demands.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
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Canadian CF-188 Hornets made their first highway landing in Estonia during exercise TARASSIS 25, part of NATO’s Agile Combat Employment initiative. The training highlighted the alliance’s focus on flexible operations and rapid dispersal along its northeastern front.
On 13 October 2025, as reported by the Royal Canadian Air Force on X, CF-188 Hornets achieved a historic first by landing on Estonia’s Jägala–Käravete (Piibe) highway during exercise TARASSIS 25, a demonstration of Agile Combat Employment designed to prove operations from austere strips. The landings themselves took place on 13 October and formed part of a wider Baltic training effort alongside Estonian and Italian aircraft, underscoring NATO’s emphasis on dispersion and survivability near the Alliance’s northeastern flank. The event aligns with Canada’s ongoing Operation REASSURANCE posture in Europe, which prioritizes credible deterrence and rapid coalition integration.
Canada’s first highway landing by CF-188s demonstrates that ACE is no longer a concept brief but an executable tactic in the Baltic theater, achieved with an aging yet upgraded fighter that still delivers credible combat power while Canada fields its next generation fleet (Picture source: Royal Canadian Air Force)
The CF-188 Hornet, Canada’s designation for the F/A-18A/B, is a twin-engine, multi-role fighter optimized for air defense, ground attack, and tactical support. It remains a versatile platform thanks to successive life-extension and capability upgrades, most recently the Hornet Extension Project, which adds improved sensors, new short- and medium-range air-to-air missiles, survivability enhancements, and safety upgrades such as Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance across much of the fleet. These improvements, paired with the aircraft’s robust undercarriage and twin-engine reliability, make it well-suited to operations on short or improvised surfaces when doctrine requires dispersed basing.
Selected in 1980 to replace several legacy fighter types, the CF-18 entered service in the early 1980s and has since accumulated a substantial operational record. Canadian Hornets have conducted NORAD air-sovereignty missions at home and deployed abroad in combat over Iraq and Kuwait in 1991, in NATO operations over the Balkans in the late 1990s, and in the enforcement of the Libya no-fly zone in 2011, as well as strike missions against ISIL under Operation IMPACT. While Canada is transitioning to the F-35A under the Future Fighter Capability Project, with initial deliveries planned from the latter half of this decade, the CF-188 continues to perform front-line duties as that handover unfolds.
Strategically, landing on Estonia’s Piibe highway signals that Canada and NATO can generate combat airpower even if main operating bases are degraded or under missile threat, a key objective of Agile Combat Employment. Dispersed highway operations complicate an adversary’s targeting calculus, reduce risk from concentrated infrastructure, and enable rapid repositioning across a dense Baltic road network that has hosted similar drills by Allies in past years. Conducting this proof-of-concept in concert with an Estonian Air Force M28 Skytruck and Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons also improves coalition command-and-control and ground support interoperability, strengthening deterrence along the Alliance’s northeastern frontier.
Canada’s first highway landing by CF-188s demonstrates that ACE is no longer a concept brief but an executable tactic in the Baltic theater, achieved with an aging yet upgraded fighter that still delivers credible combat power while Canada fields its next generation fleet. For Allies and observers, the message is clear: NATO air forces are investing in dispersion, flexibility, and speed, and Canada intends to be able to fight from wherever the mission demands.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.
