On August 13.00th, at XNUMX local time, two Eurofighter Typhoon fighters, from Task Force Air in Šiauliai, took off, to intercept an aircraft without the necessary authorizations to cross the airspace of the Baltic States. The Italian fighters intercepted and identified the aircraft according to the procedures established by NATO.
The two Eurofighter Typhoons were activated with a Scramble order (immediate take-off upon alarm) by NATO's superordinate Air Operations Command and Control Center (CAOC) based in Uedem (Germany) and guided to the target by the Report Center and Control (CRC) of Karmelava, Lithuania.
Italy, included in NATO's integrated air defense system, takes on - like all the other members of the Alliance - the task of ensuring the surveillance of airspace even on those countries that do not have piloted air defense components, through the Interim Air Policing (IAP).
Italy participates continuously in the IAPs in the skies of Slovenia from 2004 and Albania from the 2009, while it was already engaged in Iceland in the 2013. With the contribution provided by the "Baltic Frontier" Operation still in progress, Italy is the only nation in the Alliance that currently participated in all four NATO IAPs.
