NATO has approved transforming its air-policing program for the Baltic states bordering Russia, in place since 2004, into a full-fledged air defense mission. Reuters reported this, citing Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda. According to him, this will expand fighter pilots’ “mandate” for decision-making and grant them the authority, among other things, to destroy “objects that pose a threat.” The main powers have been granted to NATO’s Allied Joint Force Command in Europe and to the pilots themselves to ensure “greater flexibility in responding to threats,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur explained.

Pilots will now be able to make оперативно decisions to attack, for example, drones that enter NATO airspace, without lengthy political approvals. According to Pevkur, the decisive factor from now on is the speed of carrying out operations. “First, we have provided certain pre-authorizations,” the minister said. “Second, what matters is that pilots no longer need to contact the capital.” They can attack a target immediately after identifying it and confirming that collateral damage on the ground can be ruled out or minimized. Previously, drones, as well as Russian combat aircraft, repeatedly entered the territory of the Baltic states.

“The [current] air-policing mission is designed for peacetime, when fighter jets respond to air incidents by escorting [violators]. It is a kind of deterrence. But what is happening today is not exactly a peaceful environment,” Nausėda emphasized. The decision to upgrade the mission’s status was made by NATO allies at the summit in Ankara, ERR notes.

 NATO’s Baltic air-policing mission began in 2004, after all three countries in the region, which did not have their own fighter jets, joined the alliance. After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, the mission was expanded. It now involves more than a dozen fighter jets from allied countries, deployed on a rotational basis at two regional airbases.

These combat aircraft are scrambled to intercept and identify every Russian military plane flying over international waters — from the Kaliningrad region to the Gulf of Finland and Russia’s land borders.