Latvia hosts third NATO's air policing base

(ANSA) - LIELVARDE, 03 MAR - NATO's Baltic airspace policing mission at the Lielvarde Base of the National Armed Forces in Latvia, 02 March 2024 has begun. The Latvian Military Base at Lielvarde has been activated effective 01 March 2024 as the third NATO base to host Allied fighter detachments that will safeguard the skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania conducting the Baltic Air Policing mission, according to NATO statement. Due to runway and infrastructure works at Amari Air Base that will last until later in the year, Latvia created the structural conditions at Lielvarde, and a German Eurofighter detachment is going to execute this mission until November. NATO Member States have performed rotary patrols of Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian airspace since March 2004, when the Baltic States were admitted to the alliance. (ANSA).