Intel Report
As the alliance prepares to introduce shared new aerial refuelling and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities, Alan Warnes examines the status of NATO’s collaborative air warfare programmes and looks at prospects for the future.
NATO’s interest in establishing a collaborative airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) effort first came to the fore more than 40 years ago, during a very different political global climate. Its first move was back in 1978 when it launched its NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control (NAEW&C) programme. This resulted in the purchase of 18 E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. The next NATO collaboration of this type didn’t arrive for another three decades, when a second fleet, comprising three C-17A heavy airlifters, entered service in 2009 to meet Europe’s much-needed Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC). Now with the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) working behind the scenes, interfacing with industry, the alliance appears to have devised a system that can support a multitude of air power needs.
Today many NATO nations don’t have the resources to buy their own sovereign assets and have opted to join t…
