Captain Arunas Jurgaitis is heading north at 24-thousand feet over the Baltic Sea towards
Finland.
His Lithuanian Transport plane – a Spartan C27 – is about to lose radio contact with
Air Traffic Control.
1.SOT: Captain Arunas Jurgaitis, Lithuanian Air Force
“We’re now speaking to ATC but when we fly into Finnish territory we stop speaking
to ATC and we will just fly silently.”
The crew is simulating a loss of communications – something which could happen on a regular
passenger flight.
In such a case air traffic controllers would be unable to guide the aircraft safely to
the ground.
Sending up fighter jets to make contact would be the fastest way to find out what’s happening
on board and to assist the pilots to a safe landing.
This is the scenario at the Baltic Region Training Event.
The annual event is aimed at training the pilots and controlles of NATO nations and
partner countries in common air policing procedures.
2.
SOT: Captain Arunas Jurgaitis, Lithuanian Air Force
“We are participating in this exercise for all region not only for Lithuania, for Latvia
and Estonia these excersises and this air policing is very important.”
Captain Jurgaitis says the three Baltic states do not have sufficient jets to police their
own air space, that’s why NATO provides this capability for them.
Various Alliance members have been doing so on a rotational basis since 2004.
The current agreement runs till the end of 2018.
For the Chief of Staff of the Lithuanian Air Force it’s a good example of NATO’s Smart
Defence concept which encourages Allies to pool and share capabilities.
Maintaining their own fighter jets would be uneconomical for the three Baltic states he
says.
SOT: Colonel Jucius Antanas, Chief of Staff of the Lithuanian Air Force
“I believe the economy of scale is present here.
If one of the nations is not able to provide a certain capability then another nation is
coming to help us that is important.”
The money saved by the Baltic states through this display of Alliance solidarity enables
them to contribute to NATO in other ways such as by providing specialist forces and capabilities
in Afghanistan.
SOT: Colonel Jucius Antanas, Chief of Staff of the Lithuanian Air Force
“We have an air advisory team over there so already second year we’re providing some
training for Afghans how to use MI17 helicopters.
So we provide them with training how to maintain them, how to fly them and to plan their missions
and this is very important for them as they take control of their country.”
For Latvia too it’s a smart arrangement that enables it to provide other much needed
capabilities to the Alliance.
SOT: Janis Sarts, State Secretary Latvian MOD
“These capabilities are linked with the NATO force goals that increase our interoperability
with other nation forces and at the same time provide us with more forces that we can deploy
for the operations,like JTAC or explosive ordinance disposal experts that are quite
a significant enabler at the level of the nation like Latvia.”
For captain Jurgaitis today’s training event is a success.
His plane was intercepted by Finnish F-18 Hornets, turned towards its base in Lithuania
and guided to a safe landing by German F-4 Phantoms.
For the current Commander of the German contingent having six jets stationed here on a rotational
basis is a win-win situation.
SOT: Lt Col Holger Radmann, Commander of German Phantom Contingent
“We send our aircraft here to fly for a four month period and also its very valuable
training for us doing that.
We get to train to interact with different nations that are not only NATO members but
partnership for peace nations.And that I think is a win win situation especially when you
look at the training we have out here and for the training for the men and women of
the armed forces of the three Baltic states.”
But it’s not just in the Baltics where Alliance members assist each other like this.
Italian Eurofighters provide the air defence for Slovenia and Albania.
Iceland and Luxemburg also have their skies policed by NATO.
With such arrangements the Alliance is trying to balance political and military needs in
difficult economic times.
I’m Mike Muehlberger reporting for the NATOChannel from Siauliai in Lithuania.