NATO Deploys F-35 Combat Aircraft to Baltic Sea for First Time Buried in a routine report on Italy’s contribution to NATO’s Air Policing for the past 59 years is mention of Italian F-35s currently deployed to the Ämari Air Base in Estonia. That base as well as the Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania and now the Malbork Air Base in Poland are used for around-the-clock air patrols by NATO warplanes. As far back as 2004 with the Lithuanian base, fighter jets from Belgium, Britain, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the U.S. have flown a variety of advanced multirole combat aircraft near Russia’s borders; Latvia, Lithuania and Poland all border both Russian territory and Belarus.