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NATO sends its AWACS to Mošnov again

The NATO's E-3A Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft is another confirmed display of this year's NATO Days in Ostrava & Czech Air Force Days. It will thus offer a unique opportunity to see it side by side with the second AWACS plane, which will be presented to the event's visitors this year on a static display, namely Turkish E-7T Peace Eagle.

The NATO's Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft, shortly known as AWACS, has become within the last decade a traditional and very popular participant of the event. Similarly to last year's participation, visitors will see the aircraft at Mošnov airport on a static display.

Moreover, this year's display will be enriched by the fact that NATO should send one of two AWACS aircraft with a special painting. Whereas the first one wears tiger markings symbolizing membership of the squadron in NATO Tiger Association, the second one commemorates the 35^th anniversary of the E-3A component within NATO forces. “Members of the squadron which operates these aircraft promised that they would do their best to send one of these special AWACS. Whether it really happens and which one it is, will remain both for us and for visitors a secret until the last moment because it depends on operational requirements of individual aircraft in NATO’s missions,” comments Zbyněk Pavlačík, the chairman of Jagello 2000.

Alongside with Turkish E-7T Peace Eagle, it is thus the second AWACS aircraft which should participate in this year's NATO Days. The main differences between these two types include the shape of the radar - whilst NATO's E-3A Sentry has a rotating circular radar dome on its fuselage, E-7T is equipped with a static antenna located on a dorsal fin on top of the fuselage which is much bigger than the radar on NATO's AWACS. Moreover, due to the structure of E-7T that comes from the airframe of the twin-engine Boeing 737, this aircraft is about three quarters of the size of E-3A Sentry whose design is based on the four-engine Boeing 707.

“It was in 2012 when two AWACS aircraft met at Mošnov airport the last time - NATO's E-3A Sentry and Swedish S-100 Argus. This year we would also like to place both aircraft on a static display next to each other if circumstances, especially the times of arrival of the aircraft, allow it,” adds Pavlačík.

NATO's E-3A Sentry are located at their main operation base in Geilenkirchen, Germany, as a part of the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force. Their main task is to serve as an air communications centre and a radar station that conducts surveillance and may command combat aircraft operations. NATO's AWACS have become regular components of allied missions, currently taking part, for example, in operations of an international coalition against the so-called Islamic State.

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17^th NATO Days in Ostrava & 8^th Czech Air Force Days!

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