Lithuania expects NATO fighter jets guarding Baltic skies to receive broader powers in the coming months, including the authority to shoot down hostile aircraft, President Gitanas Nausėda’s chief national security adviser said Tuesday.
“There is a discussion about transforming the air policing mission into an air policing and air defence mission, with the same aircraft having broader powers not only to escort but also, in case of a threat, to take kinetic action against hostile aircraft,” Deividas Matulionis told the radio Žinių Radijas.
He said the change was overdue given current security conditions. “It really makes no sense that under the current geopolitical circumstances, NATO’s air policing mission does not have broader powers,” Matulionis said. “The adversary knows this well and provokes accordingly.”
Baltic air defence has become a pressing concern since two Russian drones entered Lithuanian airspace this summer, including one carrying explosives. In September, about 20 Russian drones violated Polish airspace. In response, NATO reinforced its eastern flank and launched Operation Eastern Sentry.
Matulionis said allies have struggled to implement a rotational air defence model agreed at the NATO summit in Vilnius two years ago, citing a shortage of ground-based systems.
“Countries are trying to keep them for their own use,” he said, adding that Lithuania wants NATO’s supreme allied commander to coordinate deployments across the eastern flank rather than rely on bilateral agreements.
Several allies have already rotated air defence assets through Lithuania. The Netherlands sent Patriot long-range systems in July, and Italy deployed its SAMP/T system for exercises in February. Spain sent eight fighter jets in July, four of which are assigned to air policing and four to air defence, with the deployment set to last until spring.
NATO jets stationed in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia typically patrol Baltic airspace and intercept Russian aircraft flying over the Baltic Sea without flight plans or transponders.
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