Belgium and France have taken over a four-month air-defence mission over the Baltic nations, previously carried out by Italy, under the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s collective defence agreement.
The handover, symbolised by a large key that stands for access to Baltic airspace, took place at the Šiauliai air base in Lithuania and was attended by civil and military leaders of the countries concerned.
Belgium’s Air and Space component has enlisted four F-16 fighter-bombers and about 70 personnel, commanded by Commander Renaud Petitjean, for deployment at the former Soviet base.
These aircraft, operational from noon on Friday, will constitute a Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) capacity, ready to take off within 15 minutes if an aircraft, typically Russian, enters the monitored airspace without prior notice and to intercept, control, and if necessary, neutralise suspicious aircraft there.
On-call pilots, operating 24/7, are changed every fortnight.
The French fighter aircraft, Mirage 2000-5, are operated by a hundred aviators from the Air Force 116 base in Luxeuil-Saint Sauveur, Haute-Saône department.
This marks the tenth time France’s Air and Space Force has contributed to the Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission, created in March 2004 to protect the sovereignty of the Baltic States’ airspace.
Belgium is executing its twelfth mission, Major General Geert De Decker noted, recalling that the initial mission in March 2004 was led by Belgian F-16s.
The three Baltic countries - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania - which joined NATO almost twenty years ago along with Bulgaria, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, lack combat aircraft. To offer all members equal safety guarantees, NATO rotates these missions with fighters supplied by other allies.
This programme was strengthened in 2014, following Russia’s annexation of Crimea, with 'Enhanced Air Policing' measures, which included the deployment of additional combat aircraft in Estonia and Poland.
It was further reinforced after Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and renamed ‘Enhanced Vigilance Activities,’ with armed air patrols along NATO’s eastern borders, bolstered by AWACS surveillance aircraft from Šiauliai.
“You can always count on us,” General Laurent Rataud, who heads the Air Defence Command and Air Operations in France, assured Lithuanians on Thursday.
The current rotation, which started on Thursday, is the 64th of its kind, according to NATO officials.
For this air policing task, the F-16s are equipped with four air-to-air missiles, including two short-range AIM-9X Sidewinders, and two medium-range AIM-120 AMRAAMs, and carry the 'Sniper' laser designation pod that can identify both ground and airborne targets.
During their deployment in Lithuania, they will also train for ground missions with NATO ground forces in the Baltic States, including a Belgian company integrated into a multinational battalion led by Germany under the Forward Land Forces initiative.
