Contents tagged with NATO

  • NATO battalion will arrive in Latvia by June

    A NATO Battalion headed by Canada with more than 1000 servicemen will arrive in Latvia by the end of June.

    This was stated by the Commander of the Joint Headquarters of the Latvian National Armed Forces, Leonids Kalnins, as reported by the Delfi news website.

    “Before June, smaller NATO units will arrive in Latvia, which will prepare for the arrival of the battalion. By June, the complete battalion will arrive in Latvia,” Kalnins said.

    According to him, it is expected that the battalion will …

  • The Kremlin said that the deployment of U.S. tanks Poland poses a threat to Russia

    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that Russia considers the deployment of U.S. tanks and heavy armored vehicles to Poland a threat to its interests and security, Interfax reported.

    “We consider this move a threat to all of us. These actions pose a threat to our interests and security. Moreover, a third country is beefing up its military presence along our European borders,” Peskov said. He also noted that the United States is not even a European country. According to the Press Secretary, …

  • First US tanks arrive in Poland

    According to the TVN24.pl. news website, the first batch of tanks from the United States arrived in Poland as part of the effort to strengthen NATO's eastern flank.

    "The US military posted a photo of the unloading of the first M1 Abrams tank on Polish soil. This is the first tank detachment, redeployed by NATO to the East, but not the first such vehicle in Poland," TVN24.pl. news noted.

    The photograph was posted by the 16th Sustainment Brigade that provides logistics support in the EU. It has …

  • Turkey may take the Incirlik Air Base from the USA

    Ankara is questioning the presence of a coalition of forces, led by the United States, at the Incirlik Air Base in Turkey, as indicated by the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey, Veysi Kaynak, Reuters reports.

    The question of the use of the military base by the U.S.-led coalition and NATO forces is on the agenda of the Turkish government as Ankara is disappointed with the lack of support for its operations in Syria.

    Turkey began operations in Syria in August in order to move the ISIL militants …

  • Media report that a NATO aircraft flew extremely close to a Russian airliner near the Kuril Islands

    A military aircraft, presumably from a NATO country, approached a Russian passenger airliner which was flying from Sakhalin to the Kuril Islands. This was reported to Interfax by a source in law enforcement agencies.

    "The night before last, the Russian Bombardier airliner departed from Sakhalin and, having ascended about six thousand meters, headed for the Kurils. However, the dispatchers detected an unidentified aircraft approaching the liner at the same altitude, which did not respond to …

  • Dutch fighters began patrolling the skies over the Baltic as part of NATO mission

    As of the 5th of January, F-16 fighter Falcons from the Netherlands Air Force began patrolling the air space of the NATO member Baltic States, as reported on the website of the Defense Ministry of Lithuania.

    As reported in the statement, four aircraft from the air forces of the Netherlands, based at the airbase in Šiauliai, will replace French aircraft which patrolled the skies over the Baltic during the last four months. It is also reported that it is the third rotation of aircraft of the …

  • NATO fighters made 110 flights from the Baltic states to escort Russian Air Force aircraft in 2016

    Last year, NATO fighter jets stationed in Baltic countries scrambled 110 times to escort Russian military aircraft flying near the borders of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, as reported by postimees.ee, citing information from the Ministry of Defence of Lithuania. The activity of Russian aircraft still remains higher than before 2014.

    According to data provided by the Ministry of Defense to the Baltic News Service, in 2013 NATO fighters scrambled 47 times, in 2014, 140 times, in 2015, about 160 …

  • Lithuania called the militarization of Kaliningrad a challenge for NATO

    The Lithuanian Foreign Minister, Linas Linkevičius, said in an interview with The Times that he considers the Russian military build-up in Kaliningrad a challenge for NATO. 

    Particularly, Linkevičius called on NATO to stop "Russian military hooliganism” stating that “the military build-up in Kaliningrad is a challenge for NATO."

    Earlier, Lithuania stated that Russia is trying to limit the arrival of NATO allied ships to the Baltic States with the help of the new coastal missile complexes in …

  • Lithuania is considering purchasing combat helicopters

    The purchase of combat helicopters for the armed forces is being discussed in Lithuania, as was stated by Lithuanian Defense Minister, Raimundas Karoblis, 15min.lt reports.

    "The discussions are ongoing. We have to admit that, as with the Land Forces, we have some gaps in the Special Operation Forces as well," Karoblis said.

    At present, Lithuania has no combat helicopters. The Lithuanian Army has only five helicopters available: three AS365 helicopters and two Mi-8T’s. All of the Dauphin …

  • US Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham to visit Ukraine

    Two Members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee, John McCain and Lindsey Graham, will visit Ukraine on December 30th and 31st, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

    The two Republican Senators will also visit Latvia, Lithuania, Georgia, and Montenegro.

    Speaking in Estonia on Tuesday, McCain said US-NATO relations will not change once Donald Trump is sworn in as president.