Threat assessments, alliance force planning, base protection and airspace control examined through published doctrine, exercises and defense reviews.
The published order that decides where a battery is allowed to shoot and where a jet is allowed to fly is one of the least glamorous documents in air defense — and one of the most load-bearing.
Air policing is a standing peacetime mission — radar watch, quick reaction alert, and a scramble drill that has run over the Baltic without interruption since March 2004.
A defense review is a structured document that reweights forces, posture and budgets against stated threats — and its real authority depends entirely on the law that ordered it.