The interceptor aircraft were activated with a Scramble order from the superordinate NATO Command and Control Center for Air Operations (CAOC) based in Uedem (Germany). The two Typhoons Italians therefore, in a few minutes, intercepted and identified the aircraft according to NATO procedures.
The "scramble", in fact, is precisely the operational activity consisting in rapidly taking off a pair of fighter aircraft in order to intercept and identify an unknown aircraft that violates the Alliance's airspace, in order to guarantee the safety of the skies from any potential and / or potential threat.
The Italian fighters, risking the 27 December 2014 on the airport of Šiauliai, are, in fact, assuring since last January the integrity of the airspace over the skies of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, in the 37 shift established by the Alliance.
Furthermore, Italy is currently the only nation of the Alliance that participates in all four Interim Air Policing activities requested by NATO: in fact, it operates continuously over the skies of Albania, starting from 2009, of Slovenia , starting in 2004, and had the first rotation in Iceland in 2013.
Air Policing is carried out within the area of responsibility of the Allied Command Operation (ACO) station in Brussels (Bel) and is coordinated by the Air Command of Ramstein (Germany).
Source: TFA - Lithuania - magg. Davide Tortora
