Inside NATO's 'eyes in the sky' watching Russian moves from 30,000 feet

Business Insider

4 days ago

Business Insider got access to a NATO AWACS flight for an eight-hour surveillance mission.
The mission provided aerial support for a NATO patrol and security operation in the Baltic Sea.
This is what it's like inside the E-3A Sentry, keeping an eye on Russian activity at 30,000 feet.
ABOARD A NATO AWACS PLANE — As the aircraft soared over Eastern Europe, tiny triangles and U-shapes blinked across a glowing console. Each shape marked a presence — a ship, a fighter jet, or something else moving near the Baltic Sea and the militarized Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
The NATO E-3A Sentry, a flying radar and airborne command post, was tracking them all, with its rotating radar dome scanning hundreds of miles in every direction.
"We're the eyes in the sky," said Maj. Ben, a US Air Force officer and the mission's fighter allocator. "Being up at 30,000 feet, we can look down and we see pretty much everything to the ground."
Business Insider was given access to a NATO AWACS flight this week for an eight-hour surveillance mission above Eastern Europe.
Departing from Geilenkirchen Air Base in western Germany — home to 14 aging E-3s — at 8 am, the plane flew east to support Baltic Sentry operations, an ongoing alliance effort focused on protecting undersea infrastructure after recent sabotage incidents in the Baltic Sea.
"Nice view, right?" someone in the cockpit, it wasn't immediately clear who, said into their headset as the plane poked through the thin cloud layer.
The airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, is a modified Boeing 707/320 passenger plane with a long-range radar and advanced sensors that can detect friendly or hostile objects from far away and collect data that can be distributed in real time to allied ground stations, ships, or other aircraft.
The E-3 is easily recognizable with its 360-degree rotating radar dome above the fuselage. It can see over 300 miles across the air and surface, giving commanders critical situational awareness at war or in peacetime.
As an older plane, the interior feels more like a Cold War time capsule than a 21st-century warplane, but this aircraft is actually a surveillance nerve center loaded with advanced and highly classified equipment, keeping tabs on things.
The surveillance mission is "the bread and butter of this platform," said Maj. Ben, who, like others BI spoke with during the flight, could only be identified by his rank and first name for security reasons.
The E-3 is capable of a range of missions, including surveillance, tracking, target detection, early warning, command and control, and battle management, making it a high-value military asset and one of the few that NATO itself actually owns.
Built in the '80s, still critical now
NATO received its first E-3s in 1982. Despite their age, these planes have proven indispensable since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014. After the full-scale assault in 2022, the AWACS fleet intensified its patrols to monitor Russian activity and deter aggression on NATO's eastern flank.
The AWACS functions like a high-flying office space, with a range of different roles and stations where crew members work at their computers or with other sensitive instruments. In the back of the aircraft are a few makeshift beds, a place to store and heat food, and a toilet. Looking at it in 2025, the interior is dated and almost feels like stepping into a museum.
This flying command station is anything but an artifact. The plane is packed with advanced capabilities. And just about everything the crew touches, from paperwork to computer screens, is classified and had to be sanitized before BI could take photos. The most sensitive area of the aircraft, where key communication systems are, is covered with a curtain.
The plane's big radar rotates once every 10 seconds and can detect everything from warships to aircraft to air defense systems. It gathers data that the surveillance operators can see on digital maps and immediately transmit to users on the ground, at sea, or in the air.
"Wherever the demand is for an air picture, we can go there," explained Cpt. Jasper, a Dutch surveillance controller who monitors the airspace and surface.
"That's something that static sites cannot do, and what most ground sites cannot do," he said, adding that this is the advantage of "having a big flying radar and air control station."
One screen BI was authorized to review showed activity in and above Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, the Baltic Sea, and Kaliningrad. The small but heavily militarized Russian province, sandwiched between two NATO countries, has long been a concern for the alliance. That is why the AWACS are watching, and they see everything.
If a Russian fighter jet took off from an airbase in Kaliningrad, the AWACS — circling just beyond its airspace — would surely spot it. The exclave hosts some of Moscow's ships, ground forces, and air defenses.
Cpt. Marek, a Polish passive controller who works with the AWACS' advanced sensors, said the aircraft provides extra "situational awareness" to the Baltic Sentry operation and for the eastern flank allies. He added that the aircraft is an essential part of European security, and that's especially been the case since the war in Ukraine started.
Flexibility in flight
Beyond its robust surveillance capabilities, the E-3 is also a command and control platform that can coordinate with other aircraft and easily be retasked. This flight, for instance, was initially set to operate in Polish airspace but moved to Lithuanian airspace to support a training mission involving Portuguese F-16 fighter jets.
That flexibility is a critical capability for high-end fights, where numerous assets would be on the move in a fast-paced operating environment. "For the time we are now in, it's better to have a flexible force. We can go everywhere," said Cpt. Jasper said.
Key to the E-3's flexibility is its endurance. The aircraft can normally operate for eight and a half hours, although it can fly longer missions through its air-to-air refueling capability. At one point during the flight, the vintage seatbelt sign clicked on, signaling that this process was about to begin.
Aerial refueling is a delicate process that requires the AWACS pilots to drop altitude and fly the aircraft by hand so it can connect to the tanker and receive fuel. This made for a bumpy stretch that much of the crew elected to sleep through.
From the cockpit, the E-3 closed with the American KC-135 tanker aircraft, getting so close that the face of an airman inside could be seen to take on 40,000 pounds of fuel before separating and going on with its mission.
Dutch Cpt. Donny Demmers, a public affairs officer who was permitted to share his full name, said NATO can send an AWACS to operate from an area far from base, and thanks to the mid-air refueling, the plane can remain on station for a long time.
The E-3 flew back to Geilenkirchen and touched down shortly before 4 pm, but that flight time could have been greatly extended if needed during a crisis.
"The flexibility gives us the survivability," Demmers said.