NATO weighs anti-pirate AWACS

[trublue]

A NATO helicopter escorts a food relief vessel

NATO is reportedly considering deploying an AWACS plane to hunt pirates off Somalia. NATO is reportedly considering deploying an AWACS plane to hunt pirates off Somalia.

The chairman of the alliance’s military committee, Italian Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, said an airborne warning & control system Surveillance plane could be needed as pirate attacks spread farther into the Indian Ocean, Bloomberg reported.

He suggested that such a plane could be shared with the International Security Assistance Force fighting in Afghanistan: “It would not be inconceivable, for example, having a dual use of AWACS maybe located somewhere in the region and being able to perform missions for ISAF and missions for counterpiracy.”

NATO runs an anti-piracy task force made up five ships from the US, Italy, Portugal and Canada.

[FACSGC]

ive just been looking at the range of the AWACS radar - 250 miles

the indian ocean to the border of Afganistan is around 250 miles(ish) i dont see how 1 plane can cover both areas at the same time unless, 1 is above Afgan and the other plane is over the Indian Ocean