NATO fighters escorted a total of 130 Russian warplanes over Baltics in 2017
In 2017, fighter aircraft from the Baltic Air Patrol mission deployed in Lithuania and Estonia escorted more Russian military aircraft flying near the borders of the Baltic countries than in any other year except for 2015, reports Delfi news agency, referring to the data of the Ministry of Defense of Lithuania.
Last year, NATO fighters escorted about 130 aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea. In the year before that, fighters were scrambled about 110 times. There were 160 such escorts in 2015 and about 140 in 2014.
Fighters of different NATO countries are on a four-month rotation as a part of Air Force missions based out of Šiauliai in Lithuania and Ämari in Estonia.
The latest addition to this international force came last Friday, January 5 as four Danish fighters landed in Šiauliai to continue the mission of the NATO air police in the Baltic countries.