| Media Note Office of the Spokesman Washington, DC October 18, 2001 NATO AWACs Deployed to the United StatesFive NATO AWACs aircraft, one NATO Trainer Cargo Aircraft, and a detachment of 200 personnel arrived in the U.S. from Geilenkirchen, Germany, on October 9-10. The aircraft are based at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma, where they will operate with North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), helping to defend the continental United States in the aftermath of the September 11th terrorist attacks. The United States asked NATO to deploy the AWACs aircraft to assist in the NORAD mission, to allow other U.S. aircraft of this type to deploy elsewhere, and to share the burden of NORAD AWACs flights. This deployment is part of NATO's historic invocation of Article 5 of the NATO charter, which embodies the principle of collective defense: an attack on one is an attack on all. Personnel for this NATO detachment come from Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. Requests for media interviews or media orientation flights on NATO or U.S. AWACs can be directed to NORAD Public Affairs, (719) 554-6889. |
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