VILNIUS. March 29 (Interfax-AVN) - NATO fighter jets which will patrol the Baltic skies will be stationed on the Zokniai airfield near Siauliai, North Lithuania, sources in the Lithuanian Defense Ministry told Interfax on Monday.
The ministry said that the fighter jets would arrive in Lithuania on Monday, the first day of Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian membership in NATO. Four F-16 fighters from Belgium will be stationed in Lithuania, Defense Minister Linas Linkevicius told Interfax on March 26.
NATO C-130 Hercules cargo planes arrived at the Zokniai airfield on March 27 to deliver equipment for the fighter jets and technicians.
Linkevicius told Interfax earlier that the Zokniai airfield might become a NATO base in the future.
"It is premature to say anything specific, but technical and other characteristics allow Zokniai, the largest military airfield in the Baltic republics in the Soviet era, to play an important role for Lithuania and the entire Baltic Sea region, in particular serving as a NATO base," he said.
Several years ago, the British-based Phillips Consortium finalized the first phase for reconstruction of the Zokniai airfield. USD34.5m was invested in the project, while the total cost of the project is USD47.5m. An international airport of the ICAO first category was opened there after reconstruction. Yet the airport was not in great demand and its debt neared LTL170m (USD59.67m).
It has been decided to transfer the airfield to the defense ministry, but the transfer still has not been completed.
Lithuania will join NATO on Monday, as soon as the Seimas ratification documents of the North Atlantic Treaty of 1949 are deposited in Washington.