NATO Baltic Air Policing Mission Prepares for Handover

The 37th rotation of NATO's air policing mission is finishing at the end of the month; the next rotation will be led by Norway.

Norway will lead NATO's Baltic Air Policing Mission from May 1, and is in the process of deploying four F-16 fighter jets to the alliance's BAP air base in Siauliai, Lithuania, NATO has announced.

Norway replaces Italy, which led the 37th rotation, having taken part in the mission for the first time this year. Its four Eurofighter Typhoon jets will remain in Siauliai to take part in the next rotation, replacing  Poland's MiG-29 fighter jets as a supporting nation to the mission.

The BAP exercise, which began in 2004 from the Siauliai base when Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO, was expanded last year to include bases at Amari in Estonia, and Malbork in Poland. For the next rotation, Spanish Typhoon Eurofighters at Amari will be replaced by four UK Royal Air Force Typhoon Eurofighters.

At the Malbork Air Base, F-16s of the Belgian Air Force will continue their support role, remaining at the base until the summer of 2016.

Fighter jets of the @NATO #Baltic Air Policing Mission keep performing scrambles. Every week. http://t.co/Mj8oRxk1zP pic.twitter.com/5ERkfZiCpz

— Vytas Leškevičius (@Leskevicius) 27 апреля 2015

Last December, station commander at the Amari Airbase Lieutenant Colonel Rauno Sirk said the expanded Air Policing Mission was set to continue for at least another year, and this his base was "fully booked, with Spanish, UK and German Typhoons all due to be hosted here."

In January NATO announced that it had quadrupled the number of NATO fighter jets monitoring the airspace over the Baltic states since early 2014. To date, fighter jets from 15 nations of the NATO alliance have taken part in the mission.