Portuguese and Romanian Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons are helping shield the skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing (BAP) mission.
Baltic Air Policing was established to secure the skies over the Baltic countries, which don’t have fighters capable of intercepting unknown air contacts. To cover their Allies, several NATO countries send jets to air bases in Lithuania and Estonia, where they are on standby for any contingency.
Air policing is a peacetime activity that takes place 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. When NATO Combined Air Operations Centers (CAOCs) detect air traffic that isn’t responding to hails, they can scramble jets to intercept and visually identify the aircraft.
