A NATO E-3A AWACS sits on a runway at Geilenkirchen Air Base in Germany on May 9, 2023. The base went to force protection condition Charlie on Aug. 22, 2024. (Andrew D. Sarver/U.S. Air Force)
A NATO air base in western Germany with about 400 U.S. military personnel lowered its alert level Friday, a day after intelligence indicating a potential threat led to heightened security.
Geilenkirchen Air Base returned to force protection condition Bravo-plus Friday afternoon, base officials said in a statement.
The installation had gone to minimum manning overnight Thursday, raising its force protection condition to Charlie and sending all but mission-essential personnel home as a precaution, NATO spokesman Capt. Donny Demmers said Friday.
Demmers, a member of the Dutch air force, said no personnel were evacuated from the base, which houses NATO’s fleet of AWACS surveillance planes.
“All scheduled operations are proceeding as planned,” the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force said Friday on X, formerly known as Twitter. Officials did not disclose the nature of the threat.
The security alert comes a week after Germany reported that possible Russian sabotage efforts were behind attempts to contaminate the drinking water at Geilenkirchen and a German military base in the vicinity of Cologne.
A person tried to get access to Geilenkirchen on Aug. 13 but security guards thwarted the attempt, Demmers told Bloomberg at the time. German media reported that a person was briefly detained and released.
The base at Geilenkirchen is near the border with the Netherlands. Among its international military and civilian staff are about 400 mostly U.S. Air Force personnel, Demmers said. A handful are in the Navy.
Two of the base’s squadrons fall under the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base: the 852nd Medical Squadron and 470th Air Base Squadron.
Geilenkirchen is home to 14 E-3A AWACS airplanes, which are tasked with protecting NATO airspace through surveillance. Its mobile radar is designed to detect aircraft, ships, vehicles, missiles and other incoming projectiles at long ranges.
Two of them deployed Thursday to Konya Air Base in Turkey and will conduct surveillance flights along NATO’s eastern flank, Demmers said. The previously scheduled deployment is not linked to Thursday’s security developments, he said.
