Reuters reports that “NATO should upgrade its air patrols in the Baltic states into a combat-ready force that would be able to defend them in time of war, the defense alliance’s top commander said on Tuesday.”  

“A multi-national NATO force currently has eight jets patrolling the skies over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This air policing operation was increased from four jets in 2014 after Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.”  

“‘I think that the alliance does need to be ready for the air defense mission, and of course we as military men and women are looking at that capability,’ Philip Breedlove, outgoing NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told reporters in Vilnius.”