Several Allies have deployed additional assets like surface-based air and missile defence (SBAMD) systems and fighter aircraft augmenting the routinely deployed Baltic Air Policing fighters based at Siauliai ,Lithuania, and Ämari, Estonia. During so-called readiness verification events, NATO Allied Air Command, via the Combined Air Operations Centre at Uedem, Germany, oversaw procedural test of how these assets can be brought to work together efficiently.
Controlled by the Lithuanian Control and Reporting Centre at Karmelava, Allied SBAMD systems from Germany, Spain and Lithuania trained defensive measures with fighter aircraft from Finland, France, Germany, Portugal, Romania and the United Kingdom supported by NATO Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft and Allied air-to-air refueling aircraft.
“With these activities NATO verified how the various IAMD components on the ground and in the air can be tied into a network that helps to shield NATO airspace against potential threats,” said Brigadier General Christoph Pliet, chief operations officer at Allied Air Command in Ramstein, Germany. “The goal was to train, challenge and verify units and command and control in combined operations and optimize integration of the assets,” he added.
“We consider our activities as a useful opportunity to showcase and test a new Rotational Model for NATO IAMD discussed at the Vilnius Summit. This model supports the fundamentals of NATO Air Policing and builds on Allied Air Command’s ongoing contributions to Deterrence and Defence. The model further integrates additional Air assets and SBAMD units into NATO IAMD, all under the NATO Command and Control umbrella. It ensures NATO Allies continue to safeguard and protect Alliance territory, populations and forces from air and missile threats,” General Pliet concluded.
The verification tests also served to make the Allied forces ready to protect the deliberations of NATO leaders during the Vilnius Summit, where Nations, among others, “agreed to further improve the readiness, preparedness, and interoperability of NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defence, in particular through regular training and rotational presence of modern air defence systems and capabilities across SACEUR’s Area of Responsibility, with an initial focus on the eastern flank, thereby strengthening our deterrence.”