Nato sends spy planes to protect US

Audrey Gillan in Washington

Tuesday October 9, 2001

The Guardian

Five Awacs surveillance planes are to be sent to the United States to help combat terrorism and any perceived threat of attack at home, Nato confirmed yesterday.

In response to a request from the US, Nato members agreed on Monday that five of the surveillance aircraft and their crews would deploy to the US to help with counter-terrorism operations.

Lord Robertson, Nato secretary general, said: "This deployment will allow US aircraft currently engaged in these operations in the United States to be released for operations against terrorism elsewhere."

The Awacs (airborne warning and control system) planes, which are currently in Germany, will be moved in the next 24 to 48 hours. French Awacs aircraft will step up operations in Bosnia to fill in for the transferred planes.

The Awacs aircraft has a reconnaissance and surveillance system that is effective over land and sea. An easily identifiable aircraft, it has a large satellite dish sitting on a regular aeroplane body. This "eye" has a 360-degree view of the horizon and can "see" more than 200 miles. The Awacs normally operates at 29,000 feet.

The US, which is stepping up security all across the country, says it needs the planes to secure its borders and monitor any movements that may lead to further terrorist attacks. The CIA and other agencies have warned the government to expect retaliatory attacks from Osama bin Laden.

Nato operates a fleet of 17 Awacs aircraft through a pooling system, although the aircraft themselves are technically owned by Luxembourg.

A third of the 1,800 staff at the Nato airbase near Aachen in western Germany are German. The media have speculated that Germany's military involvement in the US response to the September 11 attacks may take the form of participation in Awacs flights.

-- (will look @ for. towelheads), October 10, 2001

Answers

NATO to give U.S. warships, planes

By Elliot Blair Smith USA TODAY

BRUSSELS -- NATO plans to announce today that it is sending six warships to the eastern Mediterranean, as the alliance continues to increase the assistance it is giving the United States in the battle against terrorism.

The announcement will follow Monday's pledge by NATO to send five AWACS surveillance jets to the USA to help patrol America's skies while an equal number of U.S. AWACS jets are deployed to Central Asia. NATO isn't sending its AWACS jets to Central Asia because the military operations there are a joint U.S.-British campaign, not a NATO-controlled effort.

It's likely the warships in the Mediterranean also won't be directly involved in the anti-terrorism military operations, but instead will be involved in security operations. They will patrol the waters between the Middle East and Europe in place of U.S. and British ships that have been deployed to the war effort.

It hasn't been settled yet which NATO members will contribute the six ships -- four navy frigates, one destroyer and a supply ship. Although NATO has its own AWACS jets, it does not have its own ships. The ships will be separate from NATO member Canada's decision to contribute six of its own ships and six surveillance planes to the operation.

Other NATO members -- including Belgium, France and Spain -- also are looking for ways to contribute on their own.

Nicholas Burns, U.S. ambassador to NATO, said that the 19-nation organization's contributions underscore how ''NATO is not only relevant to the (anti-terrorism) campaign, NATO is critical to it.''

Since last month's terrorist attacks on the United States, NATO has for the first time in its history voted to activate a mutual-defense provision known as Article 5, which considers an attack on one NATO member to be an attack on them all. Conceived at NATO's founding in April 1949 as the means by which European powers could involve the United States in the event of an attack by Russia, the mutual-defense agreement underpins the alliance.

The fact that Article 5 was invoked in the defense of the United States rather than Europe represents a historic turnabout. ''We stand together. Europe and North America are one single security space,'' NATO Secretary-General George Robertson said last week.

As helpful as NATO airfields, aircraft and warships will be to the campaign, the allies' decision to join the war on terrorism might be even more important for its possible effect on accelerating NATO's transformation from Cold War machine to a force relevant to today's unconventional global threats.

Michael Codner, a director of Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defense Studies, says the war on terrorism ''has the potential to be a major rejuvenation and renaissance for NATO.''

-- (watching@for.cropdusters), October 10, 2001.

PARIS, Oct. 8 -- The NATO alliance plans to send five European radar planes to help protect the East Coast of the United States from attack, taking over responsibilities normally handled by U.S. aircraft that are taking part in the Afghanistan strikes, officials said today.

As the strikes entered their second day, other allies stepped forward with assistance in the Asian conflict zone itself. Canada said it will send 2,000 troops including a commando unit, six warships and six airplanes to join the campaign, while France said it had intelligence agents on the ground working with the Afghan opposition.

The deployment of AWACS aircraft, four-engine planes outfitted as flying radar stations, is perhaps the most unusual manifestation of the division of labor emerging among the NATO allies. The joint cooperation will place European troops, in this case Germans, in charge of securing the safety of an American coastline.

The AWACS are coming from Geilenkirchen air base in Germany. NATO officials call the new assignment symbolically significant, because the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington were carried out with hijacked airplanes.

"It's a compliment from the United States that they're happy to have their skies patrolled by NATO," said Mark Laity, special advisor to NATO's secretary general, George Robertson. "The tragedy came from the skies."

In the opening days of the military campaign in Afghanistan, the United States is getting aid from allies in many ways, including troops in the field -- British forces participated in the first day's salvos -- access to ports and airfields, and the sharing of intelligence.

Generally, the arrangements are structured to give the Brussels-based NATO a role in the anti-terror coalition, but maintain nearly complete field control in U.S. hands. That way actions can proceed without consultations with numerous allied capitals. "We all know a coalition is never as coordinated as one nation on its own," said Laity.

In some cases, the allies are filling holes created as U.S. troops ship out from their normal stations for duty in the Afghan theater.

On Tuesday, NATO plans to formally authorize a redeployment of European naval forces to the eastern Mediterranean, in part to free up American naval ships there for the Afghan conflict. The decision was made today, NATO sources said, but not announced to give alliance ambassadors time to consult with their home governments.

From the start, the Bush administration has let it be known that as the operation unfolds, the United States will need to redeploy some forces out of the Balkans. Among the forces that might be shifted, a U.S. official said, are specialized medical units in Kosovo and units operating unmanned drones, or low-flying surveillance aircraft.

"We have some specialized units in the Balkans and committed elsewhere in Western Europe to specific European missions," said a U.S. diplomat. "We hope not to, but we may have to pull out temporarily for some counter-terrorism operations. We may just need those specialized units or equipment for counter-terrorism purposes."

Canada's contribution will include the frigate HMCS Halifax, with 230 personnel, which was immediately directed to the Persian Gulf; one destroyer; a supply ship; and Sea King helicopters. Another frigate, the HMCS Vancouver, will be deployed from Canada's west coast.

Canada's air force will provide surveillance and airlift support with three C-130 Hercules, one Airbus plane and two Aurora maritime patrol aircraft. The commandos to be deployed are a component of a unit called Joint Task Force 2.

Defense Minister Art Eggleton said he has authorized 100 members of Canada's armed forces who were serving in exchange programs in the United States and with other allies to participate in operations conducted by their "host units in response to the recent terrorist attack."

Earlier, in response to a request from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint U.S.-Canadian organization, eight additional Canadian jet fighters were assigned to patrol North American airspace, up from four before Sept. 11, Canadian officials said.

Australia, meanwhile, has offered 150 elite Special Air Services troops, as well as refueling and surveillance aircraft, bringing the Australian commitment to 1,000 troops.

France has offered use of its naval forces in the Indian Ocean, and defense ministry officials said today that intelligence agents are already on the ground in Afghanistan in contact with the opposition Northern Alliance forces.

The slain Northern Alliance leader, Ahmed Shah Massoud, was fluent in French and had extensive French military contacts, a French military source here said.

-- (guarding@our.skies), October 10, 2001.

Dim memory stirs...

Wasn't there a doomer theory that y2k would be a catalyst for the deployment of American forces outside of our borders and NATO forces inside our borders? Whoa, Nelly!

-- helen remembers ... what? (not@this.one), October 10, 2001.

Don't be boorish Helen. The next thing you know you'll be advising stockpiling of The Barbaric Relic. (laughter)

-- Ghost of Decker (red@pecker.decker), October 10, 2001.

What is a barbaric relic?

-- helen (water@get.yer.water), October 10, 2001.

For the record, AWACS is not a "spy" plane.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), October 11, 2001.

"For the record, AWACS is not a "spy" plane."

Try to tell that to the Chinese!

-- (surveillance@the."PC".term.for.spying), October 11, 2001.

I'll never understand why some trolls refuse to absorb knowledge.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), October 11, 2001.

I'll always understand why Maria does not absorb knowledge, she has no brain! LOL!

The original article used the word "spy plane" in its headline, that was not added by a troll you idiot.

If you want to play a game of semantics, knock yourself out, but it doesn't pass for "knowledge". It doesn't matter whether a plane is "looking", "spying", "watching", "patrolling" or doing "surveillance", it all amounts to the same thing.

-- LOL (Miss Maria "Knowitall" @ thinks. she is smart!), October 11, 2001.

LOL, I was answering the troll who posted after me. Just setting the record straight; you, troll, can ignore it if you like.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), October 11, 2001.

Maria? Maria? That Maria? My Maria? The telecom chickie?

The Italian one? With the sensitive feelings? The crow who's mesmerized by bright, shiny objects?

-- lisa (lisa@library.now), October 11, 2001.

Yeah little Lisa, where's my kiss? My butt's all been powdered waiting for your puckered lips.

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), October 11, 2001.