Portugal is considering to contribute to a rotational air defence model agreed by NATO defence ministers, General José Nunes da Fonseca, the country’s chief of defence, said in Vilnius on Tuesday.
“The new rotational model is a good tool and we are enhancing and evaluating the value of this model,” Nunes da Fonseca told reporters.
“I think it is a good evolution of what we have been doing as NATO nations is this Baltic area and the minister of defence of Portugal and the Portuguese Armed Forces are evaluating this possibility to evolve in this subject,” the general said.
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“We understand that if there is something to be changed, it will be changed for the better and, of course, count on the Portuguese Armed Forces for these efforts and for these evolutions,” he added.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Arvydas Anušauskas has said that the model “sets out the principles by which countries will be able to allocate ground-based air defence and aviation capabilities, starting with NATO’s eastern flank”.
“Lithuania has done the homework and will provide favourable conditions for the implementation of the rotational air defence model, such as infrastructure, host nation support, personnel,” he said in a press release earlier this month.
Lithuania and the other Baltic countries have been pushing for some time for NATO to beef up air defence capabilities in the region, saying that this would allow upgrading the alliance’s Baltic air policing mission, launched almost 20 years ago, to an air defence mission.
Discussions on the issue have intensified in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Given the shortage of such weapons, however, the Baltic countries have proposed a rotational deployment of air defence capabilities, meaning that a different Western partner could send military equipment to a different Baltic country on a rotational basis.
Lithuania’s Chief of Defence Lieutenant General Valdemaras Rupšys thanked his Portuguese counterpart for “sustained cooperation in all military dimensions” and said that the countries are looking to step up their partnership in cyber security.
“Military cooperation [...] practically covers the air dimension, the navy and the land force. Today we said that we need a fourth element, cyber defence,” he told reporters.
“We know quite well the experience that the Lithuanian Armed Forces have in the cyber area,” said Nunes da Fonseca. “We are transforming our armed forces, we are building the cyber command in Portugal and we are also facing some threats.”
“It is possible to exchange experiences [...] by sending some experts to Lithuania and sending some experts from Lithuania to Portugal to share what we know,” he said.
Lithuania and Portugal have been cooperating in defence since 2002.
Currently, Portuguese and Romanian military personnel are protecting Baltic airspace with eight F-16 fighter jets.
This is the Portuguese Air Force’s sixth rotation of the NATO Baltic air policing mission since the first deployment in Lithuania in 2007.
NATO member countries have taken turns safeguarding Baltic airspace since Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the Alliance back in 2004.
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