War with Russia

As Bertinetti entered the Operations Center, he couldn’t help but notice a tall, dark-haired young man, wearing what looked like British combat uniform, sitting apart from the Latvian officers and talking to a slim, blonde-haired girl.

The young man saw Bertinetti’s flying suit with its US flag on the shoulder and stood up.

“I’m Tom Morland, UK Liaison Officer to the Latvians. You must be here with the first F-16s?”

“Sure thing, Tom. Good to meet you.” Bertinetti extended his hand and introduced himself. He glanced inquiringly at the blonde girl.

Krauja looked him in the eye. “Marina Krauja. I’m with the Latvian Interior Ministry.”

Teteris led them all into the Operations Center, on the wall of which was a digital map showing Latvia and its borders. On the Latvian side of the Russian border, blue icons indicated Latvian army positions. Further east, inside Russia, Bertinetti could see the concentration of red icons around Pskov, with more to the south around Opochka and Ostrov.

“All part of the snap exercise the Russians have been conducting,” commented Teteris.

In front of the map, staff officers and watch keepers sat at rows of desks in front of computer terminals. Headsets on and speaking quietly into remote microphones, they issued orders, digested and passed on situation reports. As subordinate units reported locations, icons were automatically updated on the digital map.

“I see you’ve got over the cyber problems,” said Bertinetti.

“We have been expecting such problems—they are as much a part of modern warfare as close air support or an artillery fire plan before an attack. We’ve learned from the experience of our Estonian friends. They established a cyber home guard, manned by civilian computer experts. Most of them are hackers and teenagers. Our people were able to get most of our key systems back up and running. They’re still working on the problems. But at least Joint HQ can still operate from here.”

“Come,” he said to Bertinetti, “I’ll show you the air operations center where we coordinate with the Baltic air policing mission.”

He took Bertinetti and Morland into a side room, where they sat down with the Air Planners and he worked through the coordination with the NATO mission while the Brit officer watched and listened. Once completed, Teteris led them into the main Air Operations Coordination Center, along the wall of which was a radar screen showing the recognized air picture; flashing radar icons indicating the listing of all aircraft in flight within Latvian airspace and that of her neighbors. As in the main Operations Center next door, watch keepers sat at desks with their computers, headsets and microphones—plotting, observing, controlling, recording and reporting.

Teteris explained how each aircraft was identified as friendly or potentially hostile, with the information drawn from a number of different sources, including the integrated Latvian military radar system, civilian air traffic control and NATO’s central Air Operations Center at Kalkar in Germany, which integrated all airspace control in the north and east of Europe.

Bertinetti nodded. This was second nature to him, but it was good to see the Latvians were so well-organized. “That all figures. I see you’ve got our F-16s linked into this already.”

“We watched you all the way from Aviano,” said Teteris with a smile. “And we’re watching your other F-16s on their way, too.” Then the smile disappeared. “As are, no doubt, the Russians… Also, this is where we pick up their incursions into our airspace. Every day now, without fail.”

He pointed to the concentration of winking radar returns around Pskov, 175 miles east of Riga and inside Russia. “That’s where they usually take off from. Ten or so Il-76 Candids, their medium-range military transport aircraft. They fly west to our border, then track north along it, before circling round to repeat the maneuver. They often take off about now, so they’ll be up to our border after dark. They do it to intimidate us.”

“And they may be setting a pattern. Get you used to seeing them there at a specific time,” Morland suggested.

Bertinetti looked at the Brit again; tough looking for certain, and clearly intelligent as well.

Then Teteris stared at the radar returns. Hard.

Bertinetti heard him say something in Latvian to the watch keeper nearest him, who replied, then spoke quickly into his microphone.

Teteris turned to Bertinetti and Morland and pointed. “That concentration around Pskov. It’s significantly larger than usual. We need to watch that. The watch keeper is sending out a warning to the Baltic Air Policing detachment. I think we’d better get back to Lielvārde, Major, right away.”

Bertinetti nodded agreement. “Let’s roll.”