Siauliai, the Belgian Air Force will lead the peacetime mission of safeguarding the airspace on the shores of the Baltic Sea. Belgium was the first Ally to deploy F-16 fighter jets under NATO aegis for the mission in the spring of 2004; the upcoming deployment is the ninth time Belgian jets participate in the Baltic Air Policing mission including five deployments to Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania.
Denmark will be augmenting the mission at Šiauliai with their F-16 jets. The Danish Air Force has also been a long-standing support of the Baltic Air Policing mission deploying to the region for the seventh time.
The second augmenting nation will be the Czech Republic flying their JAS-39 fighter jets out of Ämari Air Base, Estonia. The Czech Air Force was the 14th Ally to join the mission; leading Baltic Air Policing in 2009 and 2012 out of Šiauliai the detachment is slated to augment the mission during their third contribution.
Since 2004 Allies have taken turns under peacetime Baltic Air Policing deploying their fighter assets to safeguard the airspace over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia and the adjacent Baltic Sea. This brought the same level of airspace security to the region that NATO has ensured for all its Allies across binding NATO Allies together to protect each other, setting a spirit of solidarity within the Alliance.