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ABOARD A FRENCH AIR FORCE AWACS — In the distance, Ukraine is fighting for its survival. Seen from here, in the cockpit of a French Air Force surveillance plane flying over neighboring Romania, the snowy landscapes look deceptively peaceful.
The dead of the Russian war, destroyed Ukrainian cities, and mutilated battlefields can be seen with the naked eye through the clouds.
But French military technicians riding farther back in the aircraft, monitoring screens that display the word “secret” when idle, have a far more penetrating view. With a powerful radar that rotates six times every minute on the fuselage and a bellyful of surveillance gear, the plane can spot missile launches, airborne bombing runs and other military activity in the conflict.
As the second anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches, on Feb. 24, 2022, The Associated Press went casual and exclusive aboard the giant Airborne Response and Warning System plane. control, or AWACS. With 26 infantrymen and an AP reporter on board, it carried out a 10-hour reconnaissance project from central France to Romanian airspace and back, scanning with electronic eyes southern Ukraine and the Black Sea to Russian-occupied Crimea and beyond.
Circling on auto-pilot at 34,000 feet (10 kilometers), the plane with a proud cockerel painted on its tail fed intelligence in real time to ground-based commanders.
Its mission for NATO on the eastern flank of the 31-nation military alliance also, in effect, drew a do-not-cross line in European skies.
The plane’s sustained presence over eastern Romania – noticed and also noticed through Russian forces – showed how intensively NATO tracks its borders and Russia, in a position to act if necessary if Russian aggression threatened to spread beyond Ukraine.
SHIELDS FOR NATO, PIECES OF AVIATION HISTORY
Regular surveillance flights, along with fighter patrols, ground-based radars, missile batteries and other aircraft at NATO’s disposal, constitute what the commander of the French AWACS squadron described as “a shield” against any overflow.
“The ultimate goal, of course, is not confrontation or deterrence,” said the commander, a lieutenant colonel named Richard. Due to French security concerns, the Palestinian Authority was only able to identify him and the other military personnel through their rank and name.
“We need to show that we have the shield, show to the other countries that NATO is collective defense,” he continued. “We have the ability to detect everywhere. And we are not here for a conflict. We are here to show that we are present and ready.”
The four French AWACS are part of a range of surveillance aircraft, as well as unmanned drones, that collect intelligence for NATO and its member countries. Colonel Richard said the French AWACS type E-3F can see for many kilometers (miles) thanks to its unique black and white radar domes on the roof, but it cannot be accurate.
The E-3s are replaced Boeing 707s. The 707 first flew in 1957 but stopped carrying passengers commercially in 2013. The E-3s are also examples of flight in aviation history.
“We can stumble upon planes, drones, missiles and ships. That’s true in Ukraine, especially when we’re at the border,” Lieutenant Colonel Richard said.
As the plane loitered and scanned, the team detected a remote Russian AWACS over the Sea of Azov, several hundred kilometers away, on the eastern coast of the Crimean peninsula. The Russian aircraft also detected the French AWACS: sensors along the fuselage detected Russian signals. radar signals.
“We know they see us, they know we see them. Let’s say it’s a kind of discussion between them and us,” said French co-driver Major Romain.
AWACS IN HAWK-EYED’S EYES ON CALL TO SAVE THE OLYMPICS
NATO also has its own fleet of 14 AWACS, also E-3s. They can encounter low-flying targets within a radius of 400 kilometers (250 miles) and targets flying at higher altitudes within a radius of 120 kilometers (75 miles). ) beyond, says the alliance. It claims that an AWACS can monitor a domain across Poland; 3 can cover the whole of Central Europe.
Able to fly for 12 hours without refueling, French AWACS aren’t limited to surveillance, communications and air-traffic control missions for NATO. They expect to be deployed as part of the massive security operation for the Paris Olympics, providing additional radar surveillance with what Lt. Col. Richard called their “God’s-eye view.”
Russian pilots have made it clear that they don’t like to be surveilled.
In 2022, a Russian fighter jet dropped a missile near a British Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance plane flying over foreign airspace over the Black Sea, the British government said. The U. S. government released a video in March 2023 of a Russian jet A fighter jet spills fuel on a U. S. Air Force surveillance drone. U. S. The drone crashed into the Black Sea.
The Rivet Joints are capable spy planes, and the Russian government “really hates” their ability to spy on the war in Ukraine, said Justin Bronk, a research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute’s defense think tank in London.
As well as gathering “real-time intelligence that theoretically could be shared with Ukrainian partners,” the planes also furnish “fantastic” insight about “how Russian forces actually operate in a real war,” Bronk said in a phone interview.
“Of course, the Russians are furious,” he said.
IN THE SKIES, REGULAR ENCOUNTERS
NATO is also sending fighter jets to monitor Russian flights. It says allied aircraft took to the skies more than 500 times in 2022 to intercept Russian aircraft venturing into the vicinity of NATO airspace. The number of such meetings has dropped to more than three hundred by 2023, according to the Brussels-based alliance.
The reinforcement of Ukrainian air defenses with Western weaponry may be only part of this decline, as aerial fire turns out to make Russian pilots more cautious. Last year, NATO noted an easing of Russian human spaceflight activity over the western Black Sea. NATO says that “the vast majority of air encounters between NATO aircraft and Russian aircraft were safe and professional” and that Russian incursions into NATO airspace were infrequent and usually short-lived.
Aboard the French flight, the co-pilot, Major Romain, said Russian planes haven’t intercepted a French AWACS “for a long time” and that if they did, French pilots would try to defuse any tension.
“Our orders have to be, let’s say, passive,” he said. For a civilian, let’s say “polite. “
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See more AP on Russia and Ukraine on https://apnews. com/hub/russia-ukraine
John Leicester, Associated Press