NATO AWACS to visit Latvia and Lithuania

SHAPE, Belgium – A NATO E-3A surveillance aircraft and crew will visit the Republics of Latvia and Lithuania, 23-25 February 2004, as part of NATO’s Partnership for Peace Work Program.

The visit is a long-planned event intended to provide officials and the general public of these PfP nations, through their media, with the opportunity to receive briefings on the E-3 aircraft capabilities, personnel and their role in the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control (NAEW&C) Force Command.

“This visit to our Baltic neighbours is part of routine familiarization missions NATO offers to PfP nations, as well as to those of the Mediterranean Dialogue countries,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. Gary A. Winterberger, the NAEW&C Force Commander.

Since 1997, there have been 16 NATO AWACS visits to PfP and Mediterranean Dialogue countries including Finland, Sweden, Romania, Bulgaria, and most recently, Israel. Other visits will be planned in the future.

The tour will include a visitors’ introduction to the aircraft on its equipment and capabilities, which incorporate detecting, controlling and co-ordinating air traffic. Battlefield management capabilities and the E-3’s role in search and rescue missions will also be briefed.

The highlight of the tour will be a two-hour air demonstration flight in the airspace of each nation during which a simulated mission tape will be played. Observers will see the actual air picture in the vicinity of the aircraft.

The AWACS mission has been coordinated with the authorities of the two PfP nations for more than a year, when the mission was first planned.

SHAPE is aware that the AWACS will be operating close to Russian air space during the visit and have kept their authorities and those of other neighboring countries fully informed of the flight and operating parameters.

Additional information on the PfP is available on the Internet at: http://www.nato.int/issues/pfp/index.htm. Information on NATO AWACS can be found at: http://www.e3a.nato.int.