Lithuania will present a combat drone to Ukraine that was donated by the Turkish manufacturer after a private crowdfunding campaign among ordinary Lithuanians, who raised nearly $6.1 million for the purpose within days.
“The United States set the tone for this type of attack in 1991 in the opening hours of [Operation] Desert Storm,” Air Force Lt. Col. Tyson Wetzel said Wednesday. “It is a methodology that still works today.”
The United States has allocated $175 million in military aid to the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania for 2020, the Estonian defense ministry said Monday.
NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission was launched a day after Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined the alliance. More than 15 years later, the three states still depend on other allies.
Hypothetical: A Russian motorcycle gang rolls up to an Estonian border outpost and begins to harass the guards. Are they a drunken band of miscreants, or state-sponsored interlopers?
President Donald Trump made the case to the leaders of the Baltic nations Tuesday that the U.S. was “very tough on Russia,” pointing to U.S. support for increased defense spending by NATO countries as a check on Moscow’s aggression.
The Air Force on Friday released a video showing two recent instances in which F-15s deployed to Šiauliai Air Base, Lithuania, intercepted Russian Navy Su-30 Flankers near the Baltics.
The U.S. and NATO forces on Europe's eastern border are vastly outnumbered by the Russian military and could be quickly overwhelmed if Moscow mounted an aggressive assault into the Baltic region.