NATO deploys AWACS aircraft to Poland

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has deployed its E-3A Airborne Early Warning & Control System (AWACS) aircraft to Krakow, Poland to join a binational training event of Alliance members Poland and the United States.

The trans-Atlantic alliance also announced on Friday that The AWACS involvement in exercise “Aviation Detachment Rotation 20-4” is a long planned activity, involving flights over Allied territory. It is part of and mandated under NATO’s Assurance Measures, implemented in 2014 after Russia’s illegal and illegitimate annexation of Crimea. These measures are in place to assure the Alliance’s eastern members of NATO’s commitment and solidarity, as well as to deter any possible aggression against NATO members.

Based at Geilenkirchen Air Base in Germany, NATO’s fleet of 14 AWACS aircraft conducts a wide range of operations – including flights in support of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, as well as Operation Sea Guardian. They regularly conduct flights under NATO’s Assurance Measures across the implementation area, including air surveillance flights, exercise support, or “show of presence” such as fly-overs.

AWACS provides situational awareness of friendly, neutral and hostile activity, command and control of an area of responsibility, battle management of theater forces, all-altitude and all-weather surveillance of the battle space, and early warning of enemy actions during joint, allied, and coalition operations.