WARSAW, Poland -  A NATO media event was hosted at Warsaw International Airport today, on 20 February 2017, to announce the next quarterly scheduling conference for surveillance flights in support of NATO’s Assurance Measures. 

The February 2017 conference is held at Warsaw on 22 and 23 February to send a signal of NATO presence in the Assurance Measures implementation area – NATO’s eastern member countries. Furthermore, for the first time a significant national asset, the Polish Air Operations Centre (AOC), will be involved in the upcoming engagement term. To showcase NATO’s air surveillance capability to the media, one of NATO’s AWACS surveillance aircraft, based at Geilenkirchen, Germany was on display at the event. 

 

Following the Russia-Ukraine crisis, the Alliance has performed AWACS surveillance missions, surpassing over 1000 flights in support of NATO’s Assurance Measures. In November 2016 NATO's Allied Air Command, headquartered in Ramstein, Germany took over operational control of all AWACS missions and is now responsible for all mission-related planning, scheduling and coordination.Brigadier General Kevin Huyck, representative of Allied Air Command said to the forty attending journalists "This quarterly planning event will continue our commitment and steadfast, undiminished support for the mission."

NATO’s Assurance Measures are a series of land, sea and air activities in, on and around the territory of NATO Allies in Central and Eastern Europe, designed to reinforce their defence, reassure their populations and deter potential aggression. AWACS surveillance flights in support of the mission are enhancing NATO’s situational awareness. Their capability to command and control fighter aircraft furthermore provides opportunities for training with national fighter assets in a real world environment.

Story by Allied Air Command Public Affairs Office