Operations
The Component operates seventeen Boeing E-3A AWACS aircraft and three Trainer Cargo Aircraft (TCA)(one of which has since retired), all of which are based on the Boeing 707 airframe. These 20 aircraft of the NATO E-3A Component are all registered in Luxembourg as part of that country’s contribution to the NATO AWACS programme.
Since coming into service in the early 1980s, the aircraft and their onboard systems and associated ground-based equipment have undergone regular upgrading. Two major modernization programmes have been accomplished since the early 1990s. The more recent of these, the MidTerm Modernization Programme, was completed in December 2008. It included the retrofitting of 17 E-3As with improved navigation systems, digital communication systems and five additional workstations, as well as the enhancement of two Mission Simulators. As a result of this project the NATO AWACS will be able to continue to fulfill its intended role as an important NATO asset for maintaining peace and security.
The Component’s three operational E-3A squadrons and its TCA squadron have a total of thirty multinational aircrews from 14 of NATO’s 28 nations: Poland, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. In addition, the Aircrew Training Squadron operates on an equally multinational basis under the direction of Training Wing.
Normally, only a certain number of the E-3As and TCAs are present at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen at any given time. The remainder are deployed to the Component’s Forward Operating Bases in Greece, Italy, Turkey, and the Forward Operating Location in Norway, or to locations elsewhere. Each of these forward operating facilities is located on a national airbase. The Component has approximately thirty military and civilian assigned personnel at each site; these are NATO personnel, but all are from the respective host nation.
Read more about this topic: NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen
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