Lithuanian Ministry of Defence, Change of military units on NATO Air-policing mission ceremony will be held in Lithuanian Air Force Aviation Base in Siauliai on October 31. Romanian soldiers currently guarding Baltic airspace will hand over the mission to the Portuguese Air Force soldiers.
Ceremony of change will be attended by the National Defence Minister Juozas Olekas, Ambassadors of Romania and Portugal to Lithuania, leadership of the Lithuanian Air Force and Aviation Base, representatives of armed forces of Portugal and Romania, representatives of Siauliai City, and others.
Baltic airspace will be guarded by contingent of Portuguese soldiers containing 70 people with four F-16 jets.
Within a month and a half Norwegians will take over the mission from their Portuguese colleges to be in charge of the Baltic Airspace policing for the second.
Starting with 2004 the mission has been held by Belgian, Danish, British, Norwegian, Dutch, German, American and Polish soldiers for three month each, and since the four-month rotational cycle began in spring of 2006, soldiers of Turkey, Spain, Belgium, and France were in charge of the mission.
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