NATO announced on Thursday the temporary deployment of some AWACS surveillance aircraft at the Šiauliai base in Lithuania to monitor Russian military activity near the border of the North Atlantic alliance, EFE and Agerpres reported.
The alliance’s statement said the first of two planes scheduled for the mission arrived at a Lithuanian air base on Thursday.
“Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine has made us more alert to the security situation in the Baltic Sea region,” said acting NATO spokesman Dylan White, who explained that AWACS aircraft can detect aircraft and missiles hundreds of kilometers away, making them key early warning capability for NATO.
“This is an important contribution to our common security,” he concluded.
In response to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has increased its air presence in the eastern part of the alliance, using fighter jets, surveillance planes and refueling planes.
Following Russian drone attacks near NATO territory last week, the United States sent four additional F-16 fighter jets to Romania to bolster NATO’s aerial surveillance mission.
Stoltenberg: “Russian attacks near the border are reckless and destabilizing, NATO is there”
Alliance Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday in Kyiv, where he made a surprise visit, that fragments of drones that have fallen in Romania in recent weeks “show no signs” of any “deliberate attack” by Russia. .
In any case, Stoltenberg said, Russian attacks near the border are “reckless and destabilizing” and “there should be no doubt that NATO is here to protect all allies.”
Since February 2022, AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft have made hundreds of flights over Eastern Europe to monitor Russian fighter jets.
AVACS will begin its reconnaissance flights over Alliance territory in the coming days, and the mission is expected to last for several weeks from its base in Siauliai, where approximately 150 troops will be deployed to support them.
The devices are part of a fleet of 14 surveillance aircraft owned by NATO based in Heilenkirchen (North Rhine-Westphalia), Germany.
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Source: Hot News
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