With 'God's-eye view,' secretive surveillance flights stay shut watch on Russia and Ukraine

ABOARD A FRENCH AIR FORCE AWACS (AP) — Off within the distance, Ukraine, combating for its survival. Observed from up right here, within the cockpit of a French air pressure surveillance airplane flying over neighboring Romania, the snow-dusted landscapes glance deceptively non violent. The useless from Russia’s battle, the shattered Ukrainian cities and mangled battlefields, aren’t visual to the bare eye throughout the clouds. However French army technicians driving farther again within the plane, tracking monitors that show the phrase “secret” when idle, have a much more penetrating view. With an impressive radar that rotates six instances each minute at the fuselage and a bellyful of surveillance tools, the airplane can spot missile launches, airborne bombing runs and different army task within the battle.

As the second one anniversary of Russia’s Feb. 24, 2022, invasion of Ukraine nears, The Related Press got uncommon and unique get admission to aboard the enormous Airborne Caution and Keep an eye on Device, or AWACS, plane. With 26 army group of workers and an AP journalist aboard, it flew a 10-hour reconnaissance undertaking from central France to Romanian airspace and again, peering with digital eyes throughout southern Ukraine and the Black Sea to Russian-occupied Crimea and past.

Circling on auto-pilot at 34,000 ft (10 kilometers), the airplane with a proud cockerel painted on its tail fed intelligence in genuine time to ground-based commanders.

Its undertaking for NATO at the jap flank of the 31-nation army alliance additionally, in impact, drew a do-not-cross line in Eu skies.The airplane’s sustained presence top above jap Romania — seeing and likewise being noticed by way of Russian forces — signaled how intensely NATO is observing its borders and Russia, in a position if important to behave will have to Russian aggression threaten to increase past Ukraine.

A group member snaps a memento photograph from the cockpit of a French army AWACS surveillance airplane because it flies a 10-hour undertaking Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, to jap Romania for the NATO army alliance. (AP Picture/John Leicester)

SHIELDS FOR NATO, PIECES OF AVIATION HISTORYRegular surveillance flights, along with fighter patrols, ground-based radar, missile batteries and different {hardware} at NATO’s disposal, shape what the commander of France’s AWACS squadron described as “a defend” in opposition to any possible spill-over. The “final objective is, after all, no battle and deterrence,” stated the commander, a lieutenant colonel named Richard. On account of French safety issues, the AP used to be simplest ready to spot him and different army group of workers by way of their ranks and primary names.“We want to display that we have got the defend, display to the opposite nations that NATO is collective protection,” he persisted. “We be able to come across all over. And we aren’t right here for a battle. We’re right here to turn that we’re provide and in a position.”

France’s 4 AWACS are amongst quite a lot of surveillance plane, together with unmanned UAV drones, that collect intelligence for NATO and its member countries. Lt. Col. Richard stated the French E-3F-type AWACS see for masses of kilometers (miles) with their unique black-and-white rooftop radar domes, even though he wouldn’t be actual.

The pilot of a French army AWACS surveillance airplane operates cockpit apparatus on a 10-hour undertaking Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, to jap Romania for the NATO army alliance. (AP Picture/John Leicester)

E-3s are changed Boeing 707s. The 707 first flew in 1957 however stopped wearing passengers commercially in 2013, so E-3s also are flying examples of aviation historical past.“We will be able to come across plane, we will come across UAVs, we will come across missiles and we will come across ships. That’s true, needless to say, in Ukraine, particularly once we are on the border,” Lt. Col. Richard stated.Because the airplane loitered and scanned, the group detected a far off Russian AWACS above the Sea of Azov, many masses of kilometers away at the Crimean Peninsula’s jap facet. The Russian plane additionally apparently noticed the French AWACS: Sensors alongside the fuselage picked up Russian radar alerts.

“We all know that they see us, they know that we see them. Let’s say that it’s some roughly a discussion between them and us,” the French co-pilot, Main Romain, stated.HAWK-EYED AWACS ON CALL TO SAFEGUARD THE OLYMPICSNATO additionally has its personal fleet of 14 AWACS, additionally E-3s. They may be able to come across low-flying objectives inside of 400 kilometers (250 miles) and higher-flying objectives every other 120 kilometers (75 miles) past that, the alliance says. It says one AWACS can surveil a space the dimensions of Poland; 3 can quilt all of central Europe.

A group member is obscured by way of surveillance apparatus that in large part fills the fuselage of a French army AWACS surveillance airplane because it flew a 10-hour undertaking Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, to jap Romania for the NATO army alliance. (AP Picture/John Leicester)

The commander of France’s AWACS squadron talks to group participants aboard probably the most 4 French surveillance planes because it flies a 10-hour undertaking, Jan. 9, 2024, to jap Romania for the NATO army alliance. (AP Picture/John Leicester)

In a position to fly for 12 hours with out refueling, French AWACS aren’t restricted to surveillance, communications and air-traffic keep an eye on missions for NATO. They be expecting to be deployed as a part of the huge safety operation for the Paris Olympics, offering further radar surveillance with what Lt. Col. Richard known as their “God’s-eye view.”

Russian pilots have now and then made transparent that they don’t like being watched. In 2022, a Russian fighter jet launched a missile close to a British air pressure RC-135 Rivet Joint surveillance plane that used to be flying in world airspace over the Black Sea, Britain’s executive stated. The U.S. executive launched video in March 2023 of a Russian fighter jet dumping gas on a U.S. Air Pressure surveillance drone. The drone crashed into the Black Sea.Rivet Joints are in particular succesful secret agent planes, and Russian government “truly hate” their talent to snoop at the Ukraine battle, stated Justin Bronk, a researcher on the Royal United Services and products Institute protection suppose tank in London. In addition to accumulating “real-time intelligence that theoretically might be shared with Ukrainian companions,” the planes additionally furnish “improbable” perception about “how Russian forces in truth function in an actual battle,” Bronk stated in a telephone interview. “So after all, the Russians are livid,” he stated.

Staff participants debrief floor personnel after a 10-hour undertaking Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2024, aboard a French Air Pressure AWACS surveillance airplane that flew from the 702 Air Base in Avord, central France, to jap Romania and again once more. (AP Picture/John Leicester)

IN THE SKIES, REGULAR ENCOUNTERS NATO additionally scrambles fighter jets to scope Russian flights. It says allied plane took to the skies greater than 500 instances in 2022 to intercept Russian plane that ventured just about NATO airspace. The selection of such encounters dropped to greater than 300 in 2023, in step with the Brussels-headquartered alliance. The strengthening of Ukrainian air defenses with Western weaponry would possibly partially give an explanation for the lower, with shoot-downs apparently making Russian pilots warier. NATO seen lowered task by way of manned Russian flights over the western Black Sea ultimate 12 months. NATO says “the majority of aerial encounters between NATO and Russian jets had been protected {and professional}” and that Russian incursions into NATO airspace had been uncommon and typically brief.Aboard the French flight, the co-pilot, Main Romain, stated Russian planes haven’t intercepted a French AWACS “for a very long time” and that in the event that they did, French pilots would attempt to defuse any pressure. “Our orders are to be, let’s say, passive,” he stated. “For a civilian, let’s say ‘well mannered.’”___Find extra of AP’s protection of Russia and Ukraine at

Author: OpenAI