A Turkish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon in flight over Konya, Turkey, in July 2025. As a member of NATO, Turkey regularly participates in Baltic air missions. (Shutterstock/EvrenKalinbacak)

Turkish F-16s Are Now Defending the Baltic

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NATO recently upgraded its “Baltic Air Policing” mission to “Baltic Air Defense,” with substantive changes in how its pilots are allowed to engage hostile targets.

Earlier this month, a pair of Turkish Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcon single-engine multirole fighters took part in a mission from Amari Air Base in Estonia to shoot down a Russian drone that crossed into the Baltic nation’s airspace. That sortie followed another, in which the Turkish F-16s were joined by two Italian Air Force Eurofighter Typhoons operating from Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, which also identified a suspected Russian drone that crossed into Latvian airspace.

These activities were coordinated from the NATO Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in Uedem, Germany, and from Allied Command at Ramstein Air Base,........

© The National Interest