Keeping a Wary Eye

Nov. 15, 2005

When President Bush attended the Summit of the Americas in Argentina, he took along a USAF E-3 AWACS to help provide airborne surveillance for the meeting of 33 North and South American leaders. The 552nd Air Control Wing, deployed from Tinker AFB, Okla., flew nine sorties during the weeklong summit. Wing officials said it was the largest E-3 deployment since the unit participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. The AWACS team had host-nation military personnel, who provided the vital link between the E-3 and Argentinean ground control. The USAF E-3 aircraft worked with Argentine Air Force fighters, providing strike support for the meeting.

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