The Netherlands, which deployed its long-range Patriot air defence system to Lithuania for several weeks of training in July, wants to do it more frequently in the future, the country’s Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans has said.
“We understand how important air defence is to deter aggression; we look back at it very positively. We are also looking at whether we can repeat this in the future,” Brekelmans told reporters in Vilnius on Monday.
“The intention is clear. We want to do this more in the future,” he added.
NATO agreed on a rotational air defence model in the Baltic Sea region last year. The aim is to have allied air defence systems rotating in the Baltic states almost continuously.
The Netherlands is the only country that has since brought Patriot long-range air defence systems to Lithuania for several weeks for the Baltic Connection 24 (BALTCON24) exercise in July.
“The lessons learned during the exercise between the two countries are very important and interesting for both sides,” Lithuanian Defence Minister Laurynas Kasčiūnas told reporters.
“We have written these lessons down in detail and are using them as arguments in talks with other countries so that they could hold training and exercises, and do it regularly,” he added.
The two ministers said Vilnius and Amsterdam are working on a bilateral plan for future exercises, which could involve the deployment of the Patriot systems in Lithuania.
The NATO summit in Washington in July agreed that rotational air defence in the Baltic Sea region should also be the responsibility of the alliance’s military leadership rather than just individual member states.
Calls for faster implementation of the air defence model intensified after Russia’s military drone had recently crashed in Latvia.
“It is important for the response from NATO to be clear. It is not clear enough,” Brekelmans said in Vilnius.
“We, as NATO, should decide quickly how to support member states and the longer we decide about this, Russia might perceive this as a weakness from our side. I don’t think there is a weakness on our side. I think we do have capabilities to act, but we should decide quickly and project how we can protect our airspace,” he stressed.
Currently, allied fighter jets stationed in the Baltic states mainly conduct patrol missions and scramble to intercept Russian aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea in violation of international flight rules.
Vilnius has for some time been asking NATO allies to rotate ground-based air defence systems as part of the regional rotational air defence model agreed last year.
Lithuania has already discussed this possibility with the US, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy, Greece, and other countries.
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