Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 28
Trend:
The US has requested the NATO's help in fighting "Islamic State" terrorist organization (IS, ISIL, ISIS or Daesh) in the Middle East by providing surveillance planes called the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), Alliance's Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Jan. 28.
"We have got a request from the U.S. to provide support to the efforts of the coalition, to help them with the NATO AWACS surveillance planes, and we are now looking into that request," Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at a news conference presenting the annual report of 2015.
He said that NATO defense ministers would discuss the U.S. request at their meeting in early February, although there is no deadline for any decision.
He noted that all Alliance members are also the members of coalition against the IS.
AWACS monitor airspace within a radius of more than 400 km (250 miles) and exchange information via digital data links, with ground-based, sea-based and airborne commanders.