NATO plans to station AWACS in Gulf for long term

BRUSSELS - NATO expects to soon be able to station an AWACS surveillance aircraft in one of the Gulf states on a long-term basis as a way of strengthening its missions in Afghanistan and off the Somali coast, the alliance’s secretary general said Monday.

NATO currently has an AWACS temporarily stationed in Oman to give its missions airborne early-warning cover, but it is keen to set up a longer-term arrangement in the strategically crucial area.

“I can confirm that we have ongoing talks about that, and I hope and expect to see a positive outcome,” Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists in Brussels.

Wednesday, the head of NATO’s military committee, Admiral Giampaolo Di Paola, said that the alliance would be interested in basing an AWACS - essentially a long-range flying radar system - in the Gulf on a long-term basis.

Such a move would strengthen the mission in Afghanistan and the fight against piracy off Yemen, Di Paola said, but stressed that it would depend on its cost-effectiveness.

Separately, Rasmussen welcomed US plans to send anti-missile ships and systems to the Gulf as part of broader plans to prevent a possible Iranian missile attack.

“We are very much concerned with their security,” he said, while stressing that the decision was a purely US one.