Lietuvos kariuomenė, the Lithuanian Armed Forces, posted a public notice on 13 July 2026 warning residents of northern Lithuania that pre-planned NATO Baltic Air Policing fighter jet training would produce sonic booms over the region that day. Supersonic flights inside designated training zones can sound like explosions; the Armed Forces asked residents to expect the noise and stay calm.
The training runs over the northern part of the country. Šiauliai Air Base is the main hub for Baltic Air Policing on the Lithuanian side.
What a sonic boom is
A sonic boom happens when an aircraft crosses the speed of sound, about 1,235 km/h at sea level and less at altitude. The aircraft doesn't get louder as it approaches. The shockwave building in front of it arrives all at once, and on the ground that registers as a single sharp crack or a rolling double-boom. A resident who hasn't heard one before can reasonably mistake it for a blast. Given the run of drone incursions, contraband landings, and intercepts across the Baltics this year, checking the source before assuming the worst is the right instinct.
Why this is a drill, not an alert
Vilnius' June 13 air alert and the Nautrēni shoot-down were both responses to unplanned objects crossing into NATO airspace. The July 13 flights are the opposite: a scheduled exercise, announced in advance, with a stated purpose. It keeps Baltic Air Policing pilots current on supersonic intercept profiles.
AirVeto's explainer on how Baltic Air Policing works covers the scramble-to-shoot-down decision chain that Latvia's government tightened after the Rēzekne and Nautrēni incidents. The jets that fly BAP rotations out of Šiauliai and Ämari train continuously. A pilot who has never pushed an aircraft to supersonic speed before the day it matters is a risk nobody wants to discover during a real intercept.
The live map at /map shows current conditions over the Baltic corridor.