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NATO to deploy recon flights over Poland, Romania
NATO said Monday it will deploy AWACS reconnaissance aircraft to overfly Poland and Romania as part of alliance efforts to monitor the crisis in Ukraine. The flights will enhance the Alliances situational awareness, a NATO official said, adding: All AWACS reconnaissance flights will take place solely over Alliance territory. This decision is an appropriate and responsible action in line with NATOs decision to intensify our ongoing assessment of the implications of this crisis for Alliance security, the official said. The NATO announcement comes as Washington and Moscow traded barbs over rival proposals to ease the crisis, with each challenging the other to show they were really interested in a peaceful outcome. The AWACS will fly missions from their home base in Geilenkirchen, Germany, where 17 are housed, and from Waddington in Britain. Flying over Poland and Romania, the AWACS planes, with their distinctive rotating radar dome mounted above the fuselage, should be able to see far into Ukraine airspace. Diplomatic sources said the AWACS were routinely deployed and on that count, there was nothing unusual in their use in this case. However, it was unusual for their deployment to be announced publicly in this way, they said. As the Ukraine crisis has deepened with Russian intervention in the Crimea, former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe have become increasingly nervous at President Vladimir Putins apparent willingness to up the ante. Posted by: Steve White 2014-03-11 |
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