NATO ALLIED AIR COMMAND
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ATO Allied Air Command has its headquarters at Ramstein AB (Germany) and is led by US Air Force General Jeffrey L. Harrigian (four-star General). The Allied Air Command has various tasks, such as the defensive NATO's Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) and the peacetime NATO Air Policing. There are some additional tasks for Allied Air Command, such as the Baltic Air Policing and the Iceland Air Policing. The Headquarters include the Operations Centre for Air Policing, Ballistic Missile Defence, and operational control of NATO's Airborne Early Warning and Control Force as well as for NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance Force. The Headquarters can also host a Joint Force Air Component to command and control allied air operations during crisis and conflict. The staff is permanently augmented by representatives from three of NATO's partner nations, Sweden, Finland, and Azerbaijan. To fulfill the Air Operations task, NATO Allied Air Command has three operational units: •
Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) at Uedem, Germany
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Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) Torrejón at Torrejón aB in Spain
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Deployable Air Command and Control Centre (DACCC), at Poggio Renatico in Italy
CAOC Uedem The Combined Air Operations Centre (CAOC) Uedem is headquartered near the city of Kalkar (Germany). The primary mission of CAOC Uedem is to plan, direct, coordinate, monitor, analyze, and report on the operations of Air Policing means assigned to it in peacetime, following the directives of NATO's Allied Air Command. Their Area of Responsibility (AOR) reaches roughly from mid-France to the Alps, to the Black Sea, and northbound to the Baltic states, Iceland, the United Kingdom. CAOC Torrejón The CAOC Torrejón is headquartered at the Torrejón AB, north of Madrid, Spain. Their Area of Responsibility (AOR) reaches roughly from mid-France to the Alps, down to Turkey and via the Mediterranean Sea, to the Canary Islands, and via Portugal and Spain back to mid-France. The skies of Spain, the southern half of France,
Portugal, Italy, Greece, Slovenia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, Albania, and Turkey, as well as the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea, and part of the Atlantic are covered by CAOC Torrejón. The emblem of this CAOC, which shows the columns of Hercules where Europe meets Africa in southern Spain and the Bosporus as united towers from which the silhouette of airplanes take off, reflects the broadness of this territory and the meaning of air defense in the face of the threat from beyond the Mediterranean. A crew of 185 soldiers from 16 countries keep the CAOC Torrejón in action.
Polish Air Force F
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