NATO air policing

The Lithuanian soldier detained on the suspicion of spying served in the Air Force Aviation Base in Šiauliai, which accommodates the NATO air policing mission, the base's commander Lieutenant Colonel Vidmantas Raklevičius confirmed on Wednesday.

The NATO air-policing mission carries huge symbolic value, Lithuania's Defence Minister Juozas Olekas said at the Air Force Aviation Base in Šiauliai on Wednesday.

The police of Šiauliai, northern Lithuania, have thanked two soldiers of the Canadian Royal Air Force serving in the NATO air-policing mission in the Baltic states for providing assistance to a victim of a transport accident.

The Christmas week was a calm period for NATO airmen serving in the air-policing mission in the Baltic states – the fighter-jets were not scrambled in response to aircrafts close to the Baltic borders on 22-28 December, the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence said.

Four Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets of the Italian Air Force landed at the Air Base of the Lithuanian Air Force in the northern Lithuanian city of Šiauliai on Sunday as Italian troops are to take over responsibility for NATO's Baltic air policing mission.

Fighter-jets of the NATO air-policing mission guarding the Baltic skies were last week scrambled once to identify and escort an aircraft of the Russian Federation.

On 8-14 December, NATO air policing fighters protecting Baltic airspace took off 21 times to intercept Russian aircraft flying at the Baltic states' borders, Lithuania's Ministry of National Defence said.

On 6 December a group of warships of the Russian Federation (22 vessels) was spotted in the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea. The group was accompanied by military aircraft flying over the neutral waters, the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence reports.

The increasingly frequent Russian provocations by flying its military jets close to the Baltic air-space shows “stupidity, not power,” says Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaitė.

NATO air-policing jets took off once last week due to Russian aircrafts, the Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence said.

After the mysterious hunt for a submarine off the coasts of Sweden, a Portuguese Air Force reconnaissance airplane Lockheed P-3C CUP was sent to Lithuania in late October to observe the Baltic Sea.

Russian warships were observed near the Baltic states four times over the past week, they were accompanied away by NATO fighter-jets.

Russia's Ambassador to NATO Alexander Grushko has accused the increased presence of NATO air policing mission fighter-jets for the frequent interception of Russian airplanes near the Baltic states.

NATO fighter jets have taken off more than 100 times so far this year, compared to just four times in 2010, in response to Russian military planes flying close to the Baltic states.

Since the beginning of September, NATO fighter jets stationed in the Baltics have taken to the skies 30 times to identify Russian aircraft flying near Baltic borders, the Latvian Defence Ministry's portal Sargs.lv informs.

Four Russian war planes were spotted close to the Baltic states and escorted out of the area by NATO fighter-jets last week. Furthermore, two warships were seen circling the waters off the Lithuanian coast, the Lithuanian Defence Ministry said on Monday.

NATO's new Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who took office a month ago, is coming to Lithuania next Friday.

The Russian warplane that caused NATO fighter-jets to take off from the Lithuanian Air Force base on Wednesday was flying next to the Baltic states but did not violate the Lithuanian air-space, the Ministry of National Defence said on Thursday evening in a message that updated a report from the Dutc...

Canadian Air Force CF-18 Hornet fighter-jets on Saturday escorted a Russian military airplane Ilyushin II-20 flying above neutral waters next to Lithuania.

In the light of the special geopolitical situation in the region, Portugal will continue supporting Lithuania by participating in the NATO air-policing mission, Portuguese Defence Minister Jose Pedro Aguiar-Branco has said in Lithuania.