Four F-16 Fighting Falcons and 120 personnel from the Royal Netherlands Air Force arrived at Siauliai AB, Lithuania, on Monday to lead NATO’s Baltic Air Policing operations aimed at securing member nation’s airspace. They will relieve a group of French air force Dassault Mirage 2000s, and will be joined in their mission by four German air force Eurofighter Typhoons based at Amari AB, Estonia, according to IHS Jane’s. NATO has conducted the the patrols since 2004, and the RNAF has participated twice before. The Fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act increased US military funding for this NATO mission under the European Defense Initiative. (See also: Northern Exposure in the Feb. 2017 issue of Air Force Magazine.)
The U.S. continued to move a significant amount of airpower toward the Middle East in recent days as talks to forge a nuclear deal with Iran hung in the balance. Flight tracking data indicate there was unusually heavy movement of dozens of fighter jets and other assets that might be…
