NATO to augment air force patrolling Baltic states

NATO will dispatch 12 fighter aircraft to augment the force patrolling the Baltics, the Lithuanian defence ministry said Friday.

"The Polish Air Policing rotation, scheduled to start from May and which will consist of four MIG-29 aircraft, will be augmented by additional four UK Typhoons and four Danish F-16 fighters," Xinhua quoted Viktorija Cieminyte, head of Press and Information Section of the defence ministry, as saying.

Four NATO fighters are usually stationed in the Baltics since their joining into the military bloc in 2004. Member nations of NATO supply air patrolling forces in a rotation manner for the region which lacks its own fighters.

NATO staged air force training over the Baltics early this month with programmes of emergency landing and search and rescue operation, including low-altitude flights to enhance the corresponding procedures and to simulate cooperation with civilian airports.