In the Šiauliai air base, in Lithuania, the Air 4th Wing Baltic Horse III Task Force, composed of personnel of the Italian Air Force, has achieved full operational capability, thus officially starting the mandate for the Euro-Atlantic space surveillance mission in the Baltic country.
On Wednesday 2 August, in the presence of the Chief of the Operations Department of the Joint Top Operational Command, Air Team General Achille Cazzaniga, the Commander of the NATO Combined Air Operation Center of Uedem (Germany), Major General Harold van Peed and local authorities, the Commander of the Air Task Force – Lithuania 4th Wing, Colonel Federico Sacco Maino officially received the “key to the Baltics” from the Portuguese and Romanian allies.
Italy is therefore, at the moment, the only nation operating in Lithuania for this specific operational mission.
During his speech, General Cazzaniga stressed the importance of the involvement of Italy and all the countries of the Atlantic Alliance to “preserve the integrity of NATO’s airspace, demonstrate our determination to protect the living space and values of our nations from all forms of aggression and be a deterrence force from any threat to the stability and security of Europe”.
Colonel Sacco Maino, addressing “his team”, expressed his willingness to “act with one mind and body, with common objectives and clear roles for the defense of NATO’s borders in a geopolitical context that has clearly changed compared to that of 2021, the last time Italy was called to operate in Lithuania”.
The operations conducted by the Italian Armed Forces on the eastern flank of the Atlantic Alliance are arranged by the Chief of Defence Staff and are under the coordination and direction of the Joint Top Operational Command.
Air Policing is a collective defense mission, the latter being the cornerstone of the NATO Treaty, conducted in peacetime continuously, 365 days a year, in order to ensure the integrity and security of the airspace of all Alliance countries. Each nation ensures with its own assets the defense of the airspace of competence. Where, however, the Alliance country does not have the aforementioned Air Defense capabilities on its own, it can resort to the collaboration of other NATO nations. In this context, Italy participates in operations related to Air Policing, guaranteeing its assets in support of some states such as: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Albania, Iceland, Bulgaria, Romania, Montenegro, Poland.
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