Home  /  Newsroom  /  2020  /  CAOC Commander flies North with NATO AWACS plane

RAMSTEIN, Germany – Lieutenant General Klaus Habersetzer, Commander of NATO’s Northern Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at Uedem, Germany, joined a NATO Airborne Warning & Control System (AWACS) mission flying over his Air Policing Area.  

“The CAOC’s area of responsibility north of the Alps is an extensive area to cover for my team of air command and control specialists at Uedem,” said General Habersetzer. “Flying on board the NATO AWACS provided a good overview of the capabilities of this aircraft for flexible airborne surveillance and battle management from the Baltic Sea to the Northern Atlantic,” he added.

NATO AWACS aircraft are an excellent supplement to existing static air command and control arrangements at both CAOCs

 Major General Jürgen Lebert, Commander of the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force, greeting the Commander of CAOC Uedem, Lieutenant General Klaus Habersetzer, after his flight on board a NATO AWACS aircraft on October 6, 2020. Photo courtesy NATO E-3A Component.

During the flight on October 6, the NATO AWACS aircraft departed the NATO Air Base at Geilenkirchen, Germany, flying to the north in order to conduct surveillance operations over the North Sea off the United Kingdom, Iceland and Norway. 

"The NATO AWACS aircraft are an excellent supplement to existing static air command and control arrangements at both CAOCs,” General Habersetzer continued to say. “It also affords the Alliance an important capability further increasing our vigilance and awareness across NATO airspace and giving us indications and warnings for our posture and operations,” he concluded. 

The NATO Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft which took the Commander of CAOC Uedem, Lieutenant General Klaus Habersetzer on a flight across his CAOC's area of responsiblity arriving at a parking position at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen. Photo courtesy NATO E-3A Component