Estonia turned to NATO with a request to reveal the technological "stuffing" of the future AWACS - Airborne Warning aircraft, which should come to replace the current E-3A.
About the "stuffing" – not a word
Apparently, the reason for this was the arrival in July 2019 Year one of the planes of this type on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Air Force of the Baltic countries. At the same time visitors could move freely inside the plane, to inspect the cockpit and the crew seats.
In connection with Estonia's request for American publications have addressed related commentary. It turned out, not yet decided, will be the successors of E-3A, one or more types of machines.
I think, what is most important - is the potential.
– said NATO spokesman Hans Grohl, while refusing to name the press tooling of new products due to the increased "sensitivity" topics.
new AWACS
At the same time in June, the alliance said, that go against time, trying to find a replacement for E-3A.
As explained by Michael Gshossmann, who is responsible for the NATO Early Warning Program, will be allocated 750 million. Doll. to extend the service life of E-3A to 2035 of the year, then from the aircraft would have to give. In his words, as a possible replacement viewed E-7 Wedgetail, which is currently operated by Australia, Turkey and South Korea, these countries intend to join Britain.
This will give us the basic features, that can be expanded in the future […] We must move on. We must ensure that further accelerated the progress of research.
– said Gshossmann.
Adequate anti-Russian fleet
According to Grohl, after the "annexation" of Crimea on the AWACS planes lay an additional burden. Against this background, the number of monitoring missions continued to increase in countries such as Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
The flight to the north-eastern Poland gives us a beautiful view of the Baltic States. We do not need to physically fly in the airspace of the Baltic States, we can stay a little further south and see all.
– Grohl explained, specifying, that is currently available to NATO has 14 unit E-3A and 6 E-3D.
This is sufficient to adequately address the challenges ahead, although the machines perform several missions:
Ukrainian crisis began, when we were still deployed in Afghanistan […] and then LIH. We have been very busy.
– He has Grohl.
