FRIDAY FOTO (November 8, 2019)

Big Bird, Big Sky, Baltic Sea.

(U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sergeant Trevor T. McBride)

A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress flies at high altitude during a mission over the Baltic Sea on October 23, 2019. The Cold War-era long-range, heavy bomber is part of a deployment aimed at improving bomber interoperability with joint partners and allied nations NATO and non-NATO — but friendly — nations.

Both NATO, and the United States in particular, have stepped up their presence in the Baltic region since Russia began throwing its weight around after annexing Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula — without asking — in 2014.

Since then, some Scandinavian countries have been boosting defense budgets even restoring a military draft as Russian aircraft and naval vessels have acted more aggressively in the region. As an example of rising concerns, Sweden and Finland, two non-aligned nations during the Cold War, have been joining NATO exercises in the region.

(Map courtesy of NATO Review.)