The current four-month rotation which started on April 30 consists of four Polish jet fighters.
The Baltic Sea region is the site of near-continuous NATO and U.S. military maneuvers: The Pentagon is reported to have spent over $1 million recently on road construction and repairs for this year's Baltic Operations (BALTOPS), annual military exercises which are the largest conducted in the Baltic region. "[T]he U.S. military is carrying out the entire job itself....ahead of June's NATO military training exercise." [14]
"BALTOPS provides a basis for promoting mutual understanding and maritime platform interoperability between U.S. Navy, NATO, and non-NATO participants through a series of multilateral training exercises in air warfare, shallow water undersea warfare, electronic warfare, air control, air defense, surface warfare, communications, fast patrol boat operations, seamanship, and mine warfare." [15]
BALTOPS 2009 was led by the U.S. Navy's Carrier Strike Group 12.
Starting on May 31 U.S. European Command and Naval Striking and Support Forces NATO (STRIKFORNATO) will lead military drills with Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the second Baltic Host operation, the first of which was held last year in Estonia. This year's will be held simultaneously in the capitals of the three Baltic nations and will for the first time include participation by the armed forces of Denmark, Germany, Norway and Poland. "All participants acknowledged the 'Baltic Host 2009' exercise to be very successful and agreed on the fact that it should be established as a permanent training cycle organised in the Baltic States." [16]
Last month U.S. troops were among 6,500 forces involved in the NATO Response Force's Brilliant Mariner exercises in the Baltic and North Seas, along with 31 warships, four submarines and 28 aircraft. "Exercise Brilliant Mariner is an opportunity to really put NATO forces through their paces," said NATO's maritime commander Admiral Sir Trevor Soar. [17]
Starting in October of 2008 NATO's Allied Air Component Command Headquarters Ramstein began regular air training exercises over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. "Launched as rehearsal for the NATO Baltic Air policing mission, the events have now turned into a wide-spectrum exercise training air assets to conduct various aspects of air operations....Previous exercises focused on improving means of securing sovereignty of the Baltic airspace as reflected in their former name Baltic Air Sovereignty Training Event (BASTE).
"The exercise was renamed Baltic Region Training Event, BRTE, to highlight
the broader tasks of the third event. In the future NATO plans to conduct such type of training on a regular basis during rotations of every air contingent deployed on the air policing mission." [18]
Russia, a Baltic Sea littoral state, was not invited to participate in any of the above exercises. It is the only nation against which such maneuvers are conducted.
The fact that regular, almost uninterrupted, war games are held under U.S. leadership in the Baltic Sea leaves no other interpretation.
Poland, though, is the main U.S. and NATO military ally in the region, as Bulgaria and Romania are on the Black Sea.
As seen above, Poland received the first of 48 U.S. F-15 Fighting Falcon multirole jet fighters in 2006 and the last of them two years later. The purchase was the largest military deal in Poland's history, one paralleled by Romania's plans to buy from 48-54 of the same planes, with Bulgaria to follow suit.
At the time of the first delivery to Poland then commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and NATO Allied Air Component, General Tom Hobbins, represented the American Air Force chief of staff at a special ceremony to welcome the U.S. warplanes.
His comments included:
"Poland's acquisition of the F-16 cements the relationship between the U.S. Air Force and the Polish air force for several decades to come.
"This ceremony demonstrates that Poland has become a very powerful and more vital member of NATO than ever before.
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