NATO AWACS plane at Polish airport
PR dla Zagranicy
Victoria Bieniek
26.02.2017 08:56
A Boeing E-3 Sentry with Airborne Early Warning and Control System (AWACS) has landed at a military airport in the Polish capital after patrolling NATO's eastern flank, the IAR news agency said on Sunday.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Gary Ell.
The E-3 Sentry, which can scope an area the size of Poland, is “very useful”, said Major Piotr Wojtowicz, one of the plane's crew members. The AWACS radar can detect objects in the air and on water, and even see cars on highways.
General Dariusz Malinowski of Poland's Air Operations Centre said AWACS planes are involved in NATO missions because “traditional radars” are inferior.
NATO currently has 16 AWACS planes.
AWACS regularly patrol Poland's airspace. The planes were used when Poland co-hosted the European Football Championships in 2012 and during a 2016 NATO summit in Warsaw.
It was during that summit that a decision was taken to bolster the alliance's eastern flank, which Poland's foreign minister said was a diplomatic success for the country. (vb/pk)
Source: IAR