NATO has agreed to upgrade its decades-old Baltic air policing mission into an active air defense operation, providing allied fighter pilots with a wider mandate to destroy aerial objects that pose an immediate threat, Reuters reported on July 8.
The mission, which monitors the skies over Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, was originally launched in 2004 when the three Baltic nations joined the alliance without operating domestic fighter fleets.
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Meanwhile, the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian charges d’affaires in Moscow submitted a joint demarche to Russia’s Foreign Ministry rejecting allegations that the Baltic states had opened their airspace for attacks on targets in Russia.
The diplomats reiterated that public statements made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin on July 4 were false.
“Despite the fact that Latvia, Estonia and Lithuania have consistently expressed their official positions at various levels, the Russian side continues to spread false information and escalate tensions. The Baltic states reject Russia’s accusations as completely groundless,” a joint Baltic statement said.
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well streamline the authorising. I would assume still the country (or countries) in which the weapon use takes place has the final authority. Since it still isn’t full on war. Some officer in command center from say Estonian airforce has to say “You have our national permission to release the live weapon into Estonian airspace”.
Ain’t gonna be any fighter pilot making that call unless it is literal self defence situation for the jet itself.
Likely as not they’ll have whatever rules of engagement established before the sortie.
This gives NATO states the right to enforce the sovreignty of airspace. So basically each government can say, “If we can PID a known threat in our airspace any pilot within such and such airspace may shoot it down over such and such region.”
Basically, if a Russian drone is on vector to hit Warsaw, the Polish Airforce may shoot it down. No individual pilot is making that decision.
Seems like the airspace is closed even for Ukrainian drones:
On 8 June, A French Air Force Dassault Rafale fighter, deployed on the Baltic Air Policing mission, intercepted and destroyed a drone above the eastern village of Berzgale. While the Latvian military refrained from identifying the drone’s exact origin, they noted it had crossed into Latvian airspace from Russia due to Russian electronic warfare interference.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Ukrainian_drone_incursions_into_the_Baltic_states_and_Finland