RAMSTEIN, Germany – The Portuguese Baltic Air Policing detachment at Šiauliai, Lithuania, trained Agile Combat Employment (ACE) reinforcing their readiness and coordinated response capacity.
One of the overarching principles to achieve this is interoperability, to work coherently and effectively with Allies
“NATO’s force posture is designed to provide deterrence, improve resiliency, and survivability while generating combat air power from geographically dispersed locations,” said Major Marco Coelho, Portuguese Air Force, ACE coordinator and Aircraft Cross-Servicing (ACS) programme manager at Headquarters AIRCOM.
Portuguese Air Force ground crew operate U.S. Ground Support Equipment- an MJ-1 Bomb lift - at Šiauliai during Agile Combat Employment training.
Photo by Portuguese Air Force.
Portuguese Air Force ground crew operate U.S. Ground Support Equipment- an MJ-1 Bomb lift - at Šiauliai during Agile Combat Employment training.
Photo by Portuguese Air Force.
On-status for NATO Air Policing in the Baltic Sea region, the Portuguese F-16s regularly fly sorties to intercept Russian military aircraft near NATO territory.
Photo by Portuguese Air Force.
On June 14, Portuguese F-16 and other Allied fighter jets intercepted several Russian military aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea to collect information about the NATO exercise BALTOPS.
Photo by Portuguese Air Force.
“One of the overarching principles to achieve this is interoperability – the ability to act together coherently and effectively cooperate with other Allies and Partners, including their personnel, weapons, systems and equipment,” Major Coelho added.
The main goal that went for two weeks in June was to assess the interoperability of United States ground support equipment (GSE) with the Portuguese F-16 aircraft and enabling conduct of dispersed operations.
“Interoperable GSE will play a significant role in ensuring NATO Air Forces are prepared to perform ACE from forward locations by reducing the logistic footprint and increasing readiness of the deploying forces,” explained Major Coelho. “By applying the ACE concept, NATO Air Forces gain an unprecedented ability to conduct agile, flexible and resilient operations in contested environments,” he added
Since April 2024, the Portuguese Air Force F-16 fighter jets have been augmenting NATO’s Baltic Air Policing out of Šiauliai. Together with their colleagues from the leading Spanish Air Force F/A-18 detachment, the pilots regularly conduct sorties to intercept, identify and escort Russian military aircraft flying close to NATO airspace. The goal of the collective mission is to protect Allied territory and populations, safeguard the airspace and support a stable security environment by deterring potential aggression.