Allies and Partners to conduct Air Policing drills in Baltic region

SIAULIAI, Lithuania - On 25 and 26 June, NATO and Partner nations are conducting live-flying activities in the Baltic region. The goal is to train rotational NATO Baltic Air Policing assets and regional air forces in standard quick reaction alert procedures.

During the exercise, more than a dozen fighter aircraft from Allies Germany, Hungary, Norway, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom and Partners Finland and Sweden, and Lithuanian transport plane and SAR helicopter are scheduled to train with air-to-air refuellers from German and the Netherlands and a NATO E-3A airborne warning and control plane. Together they will conduct the second Ramstein Alloy exercise this year in the airspace over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and adjacent international waters organised by Allied Air Command’s Combined Air Operations Centre in Uedem, Germany.

All training activities will take place in reserved segregated training areas under overall control of Combined Air Operations Centre; the Baltic Control and Reporting Centre at Karmelava, Lithuania, the Control and Reporting Point at Ämari, Estonia and a NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force E-3A plane are going to control individual training events. The flying activity during RAMSTEIN ALLOY 19-2 takes place at very high altitudes not visible, but probably audible from the ground.

On 25 June, a media event will be held at the Lithuanian Air Force Air Base at Siauliai. Media are invited to report about the Baltic Air Policing mission and the exercise. The programme will include flying on a Lithuanian C-27 transport aircraft which is scheduled to be intercepted by Royal Air Force and Finnish Air Force fighter aircraft, access to the two NATO detachments from Hungary and Spain at Siauliai Air Base and cover taxiing, take-offs and landings at the base. Interested media should send requests to Arnas.Glazauskas@mil.lt.

Conducted since 2008 under as Baltic Region Training Events and relaunched in 2016, Ramstein Alloys provide a two-day training event, three times a year, to exercise and enhance relations among regional Air Forces and to further develop interoperability also with regional Partner air forces.

Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office