The scramble alarm was launched by the NATO Command and Control Center for Air Operations (CAOC) based in Uedem, Germany: the aircraft belonging to the Russian Federation traveled off the coast of the Baltic States without a flight plan or radio contact with traffic agencies.
The Italian Eurofighter are doing this service on Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia, from the 1 January 2015 according to the shifts and the modalities established by NATO.
To date, Italy is the only NATO nation that has ensured the activities of Interim Air Policing in all 4 areas of the Alliance that have requested it (Slovenia, Albania, Iceland and the Baltic Republics). The Italian pilots located at the Šiauliai Base were the first and for the moment the only ones to obtain the maximum efficiency result at the end of an inspection visit aimed at evaluating the efficiency of the forces deployed within the Baltic Air Policing mission. This is the first time since the mission established within the area of responsibility of the NATO Allied Command Operation (ACO) in Brussels (Belgium) was established.
Source: TFA Lithuania - chap. Andrea Lanzilli
