> First, from the announcement, I can't tell who is flying them or
> whose planes they actually are.
They are owned by NATO, staffed by NATO crews. NATO is a real organization.
> For a while, only the US had AWACs, then it made a limited market
> selling them to only the closest of allies. How many countries have
> the money (or are willing to spend it on this) and technicians to
> maintain these? I would bet that this excludes even most NATO
> countries.
The US bought 34 in the late 70s and early 80s, crashed one, currently fly 33 aircraft. NATO bought 18 in the mid 80s, crashed one. They fly 17. Great Britan flies a squadron of 7 that they bought in the late 80s. Saudi Arabia bought 5 in the early 80s. France bought 4 in the early 90s. Japan bought 4 newer 767-based aircraft in the mid 90s.
> Does NATO use mixed nationality crews on AWACs?
Yes, the NATO E-3A contingent is multi-national. See http://www.e3a.nato.int for details on force, role, history. 12 of the 13 member countries are represented.
> There might truly be a shortage of AWACs if the US wants to monitor
> everything going on around the ME and S. Asia, while keeping tabs on
> the usuals countries, like Iraq, Libya, and N. Korea (and perhaps
> even Columbia in the war against drugs--that's WAD).
If there really is a shortage of AWACS aircraft (11 were used in Desert Storm, could they need more for Afghanistan?), rather than deploying more US aircraft (and making up for them by deploying NATO aircraft in the US), they could easily deploy the NATO aircraft directly.
No, for sure this is being done to make a point; but why now, and why this point?
/jordan