In Chile, Defense Minister headed reception ceremony for the two Boeing E-3D Sentry Mk 1, from the United Kingdom, aircraft that increase Chilean early warning, surveillance, exploration, and aerospace reconnaissance capacity.
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The E-3 Sentry is an airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, aircraft with an integrated command and control battle management, or C2BM, surveillance, target detection, and tracking platform (Picture source: Ministerio de Defensa Nacional)
In a ceremony held at the Pudahuel Air Base of the II Air Brigade of Santiago, the head of National Defense valued the arrival of the Boeing E-3D Sentry MK 1 aircraft and highlighted, among their capabilities, their use in peace operations, search people or natural disasters.
The Minister of National Defense, Maya Fernández, led the official reception ceremony for the two Boeing E-3D Sentry MK 1 aircraft, which were transferred by the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom to our country.
The Minister of Defense traveled to the Pudahuel Air Base of the 2nd Air Brigade in Santiago to participate in the ceremony where she was accompanied by the United Kingdom Ambassador to Chile, Louise De Sousa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Air Force. , General of the Air Force, Arturo Merino and the General of Aviation and Commander of the Logistics Command of the institution, General of Aviation, Jean Desgroux.
The incorporation of both aircraft, which carried out operations as part of NATO, will allow the national Air Force to recover the capabilities that were provided by the Boeing EC-707 Cóndor platform with an operating horizon of more than twenty years, which represents a comparative strategic advantage, since it allows access to advanced technology, procedures and knowledge, increasing the control and security of the national airspace.
It should be noted that, among the capabilities provided by the aircraft and their systems, their use in air operations with institutional, combined or joint means in peacetime, during catastrophes caused by nature or man stands out. Likewise, they can operate in the control of forest fires, search and rescue operations of people or aircraft on land and sea autonomously or together with other institutions (Picture source: Ministerio de Defensa Nacional)
After the ceremony, Minister Fernández valued the importance of this activity since “it strengthens our capacities, but also provides support in other tasks in times of peace, which will allow us to monitor and care for an extensive and diverse territory. Therefore, that our capacities are strengthened is always good news”.
For her part, the Ambassador of the United Kingdom in Chile, Louise De Sousa, stated that "Chile is a very important ally and we are proud to have this opportunity to help strengthen its capacities."
Meanwhile, the Commander in Chief of the Air Force, General of the Air Force, Arturo Merino, pointed out that "today is a very important day for the Chilean Air Force because we have recovered the capacity that we had lost with the Condor aircraft that had been It went down a year ago and this new capacity allows us to continue maintaining control of the airspace and also contribute in multi-purpose capacity to carry out other types of operations such as the search for missing persons”.
It should be noted that, among the capabilities provided by the aircraft and their systems, their use in air operations with institutional, combined or joint means in peacetime, during catastrophes caused by nature or man stands out.
Likewise, they can operate in the control of forest fires, search and rescue operations of people or aircraft on land and sea autonomously or together with other institutions.
