Published: February 11, 2006

NATO Supports Winter Olympics in Turin

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At the request of the Italian government, NATO has agreed to provide air security support in the vicinity of Turin during the Winter Olympics.

Two aircraft from the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force (NAEW&CF ) will assist Italian authorities in enhancing the air surveillance capability by providing additional radar coverage and communications facilities. The assigned E-3D aircraft belong to the NAEW&CF Component based at Waddington (UK) and, for this mission, they will be operating from Aviano ( Italy ).

Since 2001 the NAEW&CF has provided some 3,000 hours of airborne surveillance over more than 30 special events, including the funeral of Pope John Paul II in Rome, the Spanish Royal Wedding in Madrid and the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

The NAEW&CF was established in 1980 with a full NATO-flagged Component in Geilenkirchen (Germany ). It is manned by integrated international crews from 15 nations that operate 17 Boeing E-3A aircraft. In the early 90's, Airborne Early Warning Squadron Number 8 of the Royal Air Force (RAF) at Waddington joined the NAEW&CF as its second Component with seven Boeing E-3D aircraft, exclusively manned by RAF personnel.

The unique E-3 Pulse Doppler radar fitted in these aircraft has the ability to provide early warning by detecting, tracking and classifying airborne targets up to 360 kilometres at all heights.

Source: NATO