SIAULIAI AIR BASE, Lithuania — The roar of a Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet taking off echoes for miles around the peaceful countryside in central Lithuania, setting off car alarms and halting conversations among soldiers, who pause to admire its powerful thrusters and smooth flight line.
This westernmost Baltic nation, which shares a border with Russia and its ally Belarus, does not have its own combat jets. Instead, it relies on NATO Baltic Air Policing and German and Italian pilots to ward off Russian territorial incursions.
But before NATO could use this base and so many other Soviet-era military sites across the Baltics and Eastern Europe, upgrades were required.
With Lithuania already spending above 2% of its GDP on its defense, the United States directed $20 billion since 2015 as part of its European Deterrence Initiative to modernize infrastructure used in common defense and prevent a repeat of Russia’s 2014 invasion of Crimea.
That included more than 18 projects worth $27 million at Siauliai.
“This investment was really important,” Lithuanian Defense Minister Raimundas Karoblis told the Washington Examiner at the defense ministry in the capital city of Vilnius. “At any time, they could be used for NATO and for U.S. Armed Forces needs.”
Improvements included a squadron operations building, an air traffic control tower, and a hangar.
The airbase was host this week to the multinational aerial defense exercise Tobruq Legacy 2020 with 10 NATO partner nations taking part.
Participating Baltic nations acknowledged that before NATO air policing launched fighter jets to patrol airspace in the region, Russian jets frequently infringed on NATO territory.
“For the Baltics, probably the biggest threat is the uncertainty of our eastern neighbor,” Estonian Army Lt. Col. Tanel Lelov told the Washington Examiner during the Tobruq Legacy exercise, referring to Russia.
After the invasion of Crimea in 2014, Baltic air defense missions begin flying from Estonia’s Amari Air Base.
“From the air defense side, basically, there are a lot of showoffs from our eastern neighbor with the incursion of our borders,” he said. “Those could be considered as a challenge and threat for us.”
Since Baltic air policing began, Russian incursions are far fewer, and NATO jets quickly escort Russian jets out of NATO airspace when they do enter.
Karoblis said Lithuania will return the favor with defense purchases worth more than the U.S. infrastructure investment.
“We are buying several [very] significant amounts of weapon systems from the United States,” he said, describing plans to buy armored vehicles, munitions, Javelin antitank systems, antiaircraft missiles, and helicopters to replace Lithuania’s aging Russian fleet.
More important than the show of reciprocal defense cooperation and investment is the message it sends to adversaries, the defense minister explained.
“This investment, the messaging that NATO, that the Americans are here, is also very, very important,” he said. “And, of course, this investment is a relatively small investment compared to the costs of aggression against Baltic countries from the adversary.”
