On Tuesday, one of NATO’s most powerful reconnaissance aircraft, the Boeing E-3A Sentry, was spotted flying over Kaunas.
The aircraft took off from the Zokniai airbase in Šiauliai, northern Lithuania, at around 08:20 local time. According to Flightradar24 data, just 20 minutes later, it was already circling above the country's second-largest city – Kaunas.
The Boeing E-3A Sentry remained in the area for nearly three hours before heading towards Latvia at around midday.
On Monday, Police Commissioner General Arūnas Paulauskas told reporters that, based on information received from residents, a drone that allegedly entered Lithuania from Belarus could be located in the central part of the country, “possibly somewhere north of Kaunas.”
However, the Lithuanian Armed Forces informed LRT.lt that the aforementioned flight was not connected to the search for the drone.
“The aircraft in question has been operating in the Baltic region for some time as part of pre-planned NATO allied activities. This flight is routine and unrelated to any search operation,” the military said in a written response.
The Boeing E-3A Sentry is part of NATO’s Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), which is currently deployed in Lithuania. Known as 'NATO’s eyes in the sky', the aircraft features a rotating radar dome measuring nine metres in diameter and is capable of tracking up to 300 targets simultaneously within a radius of nearly 400 kilometres.
Three Boeing E-3A Sentry aircraft were deployed to Zokniai airbase as recently as May this year.
LRT also notes that five NATO reconnaissance aircraft were detected over Lithuania on Monday.
