European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - January 15, 1981, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Mazane a acs planes crammed with sophisticated radar can remain aloft As Long As 72 hours when refuelled in the the aluminium flying Cloud by Richard Halloran new York times once upon a when the president of the United states wanted to show the Flag he dispatched gunboats China or sent the marines into it was paratroopers to Lebanon or the dominican or f15 fighters to the Middle within the last two the favored vehicle for such gestures has increasingly come to be an and ungainly it carries what looks like a giant mushroom on its Back and the cumbersome Label of air borne warning and control system the Azacs which Are modified Boeing 707 airliners crammed with sophisticated radar made by were ordered to saudi Ara Bia in 1979 during a period of tension Between the two yen tens and to South Korea during the political turmoil following the assassination of president Park Chung last Azacs have been deployed to Egypt after the soviet Union invaded to saudi Arabia again to Monitor the War Between Iraq and most to West Germany to watch for russian moves into Poland from East Germany or the soviet Pentagon officials claim that the Azacs planes Are useful on such assignments because they Are visible with out being Are primarily for defense and thus Are not and show off american the Azacs is for one to help Amer ican fighters when they Are Azacs radar can pick up hundreds of enemy compute and display their Speed Ana and transmit that intelligence to or Allied interceptors in in some the information can be transmitted to a ground station where a commander can control not Only interceptor planes but also antiaircraft mis the system has the capability to look Down from 000 feet and spot aircraft streaking in at Low level under the beams of ground Azacs radar can pick out jets at Treetop level 250 Miles an Azacs circling for could Monitor air planes Landing in Boston or above the that same plane could detect planes for another 250 Miles in every from to and As far West As the radar Antenna rotating in the dome on the Back of an with recent can pick out the Azacs plane at million is probably the most expensive flying machine in the ships at using different it can spot helicopters in flight or a tank column lumbering Down a the radar ignores anything moving slowly but can pick up the helicopter by the rotation of the Blades and the tanks by their radio All that information is fed into a High Speed Digi Tal computer aboard the plane and relayed to nine consoles that can be programmed to display the whole scene or a intensified part of the tactical air controller can switch channels to see any portion of the Battle Azacs planes can remain aloft As Long As 72 hours when refuelled in the the endurance of the 17mem Ber flight and operational Crew and the perish ability of the engine Oil Are the primary limiting the air Force prefers to Fly the planes in teams of each up january 1981 to 12 so that Crews can be fresh and the planes properly the recon loitering Azacs plane sends out a High narrowly focused doppler As the beam encounters moving it bounces Back to the Azacs and into its some of the military sophisticated hardware has a distressing tendency to break but the Awass according to the is reliable because almost every part of it is duplicated and constantly the Azacs plane has not been without its Contro at million it is probably the most expensive flying machine in the it has been called a flying aluminium Cloud that can easily be shot out of the if the plane must either elude its attackers or rely on fighter the air Force asserts that it has been Able to survive demanding tactical tests and has even evaded hypothetical heat seeking missiles fired in its perhaps the most damning criticism during its development in the Early 1970s was that its advanced and costly detection and communication gear could be jammed easily by relatively cheap soviet the air Force and Westinghouse that the Azacs radar can filter out jamming or switch to other frequencies or locate a Jammer and order a fighter to Knock it whatever the advocates of Azacs planes appear to have won the there Are 22 on duty with a Fleet of 34 planned by in Boeing was awarded a million contract to begin building nine More for the United Boeing also has a billion contract with the North Atlantic treaty organization to build 18 and is scheduled to deliver the first in nato was initially reluctant to take it because of its but later agreed to a Fleet that will include 11 British built a similar saudi arabian officers have suggested they would like to buy several Azacs but that has stirred objections from pro israeli the s1ars and stripes Page 13