In a first debate today, most members of Germany's parliament were supportive of up to 300 airmen serving on NATO airborne command posts in the skies over Afghanistan, dpa reported. About one third of the aircrews, maintenance engineers and other staff working with the NATO planes will be German. The airborne warning and control system (AWACS) planes will mainly supervise military air traffic. A vote is expected at the start of July following Wednesday's debate. Every deployment of German defence personnel abroad requires parliamentary authorization. Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition has a solid majority. The planes will be sent from Geilenkirchen air base in Germany to a forward NATO base, probably Konya in Turkey. NATO defence ministers meeting in Brussels decided this month to deploy three or four AWACS planes to Afghanistan. The plan was approved Wednesday in Merkel's cabinet, which also backed a one-year extension of an existing authorization for about 75 German personnel to serve with UNMIS, a UN peace mission in Sudan.
