Australia's most sophisticated military surveillance plane was deployed 45 times next to Ukraine in the last three months as part of NATO efforts to monitor Russian activity.

The missions, which were carried out by a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and its crew, can now be revealed as the team wraps up a secondment to Poland and heads home to Williamtown, near Newcastle.

A senior NATO official confirmed that the Australian plane was in the air to assist NATO with surveillance when Russian MiG jets violated Estonian airspace for 12 minutes on 19 September.

It was also on patrol on the night of September 28, when Ukraine suffered some of the heaviest drone and ballistic missile attacks since the start of Russia's invasion in 2022.

The NATO official said about half of t

See Full Page