NATO will replace the AWACS surveillance aircraft with the military version of the Boeing 737!

NATO will replace its aging fleet of AWACS surveillance aircraft, in operational service since the 1980s, with a militarized version of the Boeing 737 commercial aircraft, the North Atlantic Alliance said on Wednesday, in a deal that could cost billions of euros. Reuters.

Acting as a flying radar tower, AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System) aircraft with distinctive nine-meter-diameter radomes have been NATO's airspace monitoring tools since 1982. AWACS aircraft are built on the commercial Boeing 707 platform!

To replace the aging AWACS aircraft, NATO plans to purchase six Boeing E-7 A Wedgetail aircraft (the military variant of the Boeing 737 commercial aircraft), with the contract to be signed in 2024 and the first aircraft ready for operational service by 2031.

The new planes with their rotating radar can detect aircraft at a distance of more than 400 kilometers and will be able to monitor an area of ​​about 300 square kilometers, informs NATO.

"Surveillance and control aircraft are crucial to NATO's collective defense. I welcome the Allies' commitment to invest in state-of-the-art capabilities", said the Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg.

Based at Geilenkirchen Air Base in Germany, the AWACS fleet has been used extensively for NATO surveillance missions along the alliance's eastern flank following Russia's attack on Ukraine.

In the past, the aircraft supported NATO missions in the Balkans, Afghanistan and Iraq, but also the monitoring of events such as the 2006 World Cup in Germany and high-level meetings.