Every day, NATO Allies’ fighter jets are on alert to secure Allied skies against external aggression or unpredictable behaviour.
NATO Air Policing mission is on duty 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. If unidentified air traffic passes through or near NATO airspace, fighters assigned to this mission can scramble to intercept and verify its identity. This is a standing peacetime task that has been carried out for decades.
At NATO Air Policing mission in the Baltics, for example, Allies regularly scramble to intercept Russian military traffic transiting the Baltic Sea. When these jets don’t respond to hails from air traffic controllers, NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centres order jets to scramble from Estonia and Lithuania to verify their identity. Currently, Portugal and Romania are covering this mission with F-16 Fighting Falcons flying from Šiauliai Airbase in Lithuania.
Since Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Allies have stepped up patrols in the eastern part of the Alliance to ensure that NATO can defend its skies on short notice. Some of these patrols are supported by aerial refuelers like the A-330 Multinational Multi-Role Tanker Transport, an asset collectively owned by a handful of NATO Allies.
Click here to download the b-roll. Footage includes Allied fighter jets from Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania and the United Kingdom, and fighter jets from NATO invitee Sweden conducting airborne operations. With soundbites from the commander of the Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) Uedem, and from the commanders of the Portuguese and Romanian F-16 detachment in Lithuania.
