page_title: NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen
section_title: Operations
hierarchical_section_title: NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen / Operations
caption_attribution_description: English: US Air Force Boeing B-52H (60-0059), Geilenkirchen AB, Germany
context_page_description: NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen is located near Geilenkirchen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the Main Operating Base of the NATO Boeing E-3 Sentry Component, one of two operational elements of the NATO Airborne Early Warning & Control Force.
context_section_description: The Component operates fourteen (out of an original order for 18) Boeing E-3A AWACS aircraft all of which are based on the Boeing 707 airframe (the component also operated three (3) Boeing 707 Trainer Cargo Aircraft, but these have been retired since 2011). These 14 aircraft of the NATO E-3A Component are all registered in Luxembourg as part of that country's contribution to the NATO AWACS programme.
  Since coming into service in the early 1980s, the aircraft and their onboard systems and associated ground-based equipment have undergone regular upgrading. Two major modernization programmes have been accomplished since the early 1990s. The more recent of these, the MidTerm Modernization Programme, was completed in December 2018. It included the retrofitting of 14 E-3As with improved navigation systems, digital communication systems and five additional workstations, as well as the enhancement of two Mission Simulators. As a result of this project the NATO AWACS will be able to continue to fulfill its intended role as an important NATO asset for maintaining peace and security.
  The Component's two operational E-3A squadrons and its former TCA squadron have a total of thirty multinational aircrews from 17 of NATO's 29 nations: Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, Romania, and the United States. Canada withdrew its participation from the AWACS program in 2014, but rejoined in 2019. In addition, the Aircrew Training Squadron operates on an equally multinational basis under the direction of Training Wing.
  Normally, only a certain number of the E-3As are present at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen at any given time. The remainder are deployed to the Component's Forward Operating Bases in Greece, Italy, Turkey, and the Forward Operating Location in Norway, or to locations elsewhere. Each of these forward operating facilities is located on a national airbase. The Component has approximately thirty military and civilian assigned personnel at each site; these are NATO personnel, but all are from the respective host nation.
caption: A Boeing B-52H at Geilenkirchen
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