Despite a rise in Russian air activity over northern Europe, NATO is halving the size of its Baltic Air Policing mission headquartered in Lithuania, as it believes the number of aircraft stationed there exceeds the needs of the mission.
The Air Policing mission has carried out a large part of the interceptions of Russian aircraft approaching and, on rare occasions, violating allied airspace, since the start of the Ukraine conflict in early 2014.
NATO reported that last year allied aircraft scrambled 524 times across Europe, 442 of which were scrambles in response to Russian air activity. It said 150 of these scrambles …read more
Source: Newsweek
