Interceptor aircraft were activated with a Scramble order from NATO's highest-ranking Command and Control Center for Air Operations (CAOC) based in Uedem (Germany).
The two Italian Typhoons therefore, in a few minutes, intercepted and identified the aircraft according to the procedures established by NATO. The Scramble, in fact, is precisely the operational activity consisting in quickly taking off a pair of fighter aircraft in order to intercept and identify an unknown aircraft that violates the airspace of the Alliance, in order to guarantee the safety of the skies from any possible and / or potential threat. The Italian fighters, deployed on December 27, 2014 at the Šiauliai airport, are, in fact, since last January 37 ensuring the integrity of the airspace over the skies of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, in the shift n ° XNUMX established by the Alliance.
Furthermore, Italy is currently the only nation of the Alliance that participates in all four of the Interim Air Policing activities requested by NATO: in fact, it has been operating continuously over the skies of Albania, starting from 2009, of the Slovenia, starting in 2004, and carried out 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: Aeronautica Militare
