Alwaght- The United States Air Force has deployed warplanes at the Baltic sea along the Russian border amid security tensions in the region.
Seven fighter jets F-15C Eagle have landed in Siauliai air base, Northern Lithuania, to take over the leadership of NATO Baltic air policing mission from Polish air force rotation.
The US Air Force has deployed more than one hundred airmen and seven aircraft to a Lithuanian airbase, the US European Command said in a press release on Tuesday, adding that on August 30, the US forces will assume command of the current Baltic Air Policing mission.
Following the outbreak of the Ukrainian internal crisis in 2014, NATO has been boosting its military presence in Eastern European states, citing Russia's alleged interference in the conflict as justification for the move. The alliance's decision to deploy four multinational battalions to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland was announced by Stoltenberg after the NATO summit in July 2016.
The US is deploying warplanes to strengthen its air policing mission in the Baltics in the eve of military drill Zapad 2017, a planned joint strategic military exercise of the armed forces of Russia and Belarus scheduled for Sept. 14-20.
The Russian deputy defense minister has described the upcoming Zapad-2017 military exercises as purely defensive and blasted as a “myth” any allegations that they could be used as a basis to invade neighboring countries.
“I would like to emphasize that apart from its anti-terrorist components, the Zapad-2017 (West-2017) exercise is of a purely defensive character,” Lieutenant-General Aleksandr Fomin told reporters on Tuesday.
Moscow has repeatedly warned that amassing troops and military equipment on its borders is provocative, violates past NATO pledges, and may lead to regional and global destabilization.
