Germany-based AWACS reconnaissance aircraft, similar to this U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry, are expected to deploy from a base in Geilenkirchen to a Turkish air field in Konya, German media reported.

Germany is expected to soon deploy far-seeing surveillance aircraft to southern Turkey to help protect allied airspace, a job that until recently was carried out mainly by NATO Patriot missile batteries.

Several Germany-based AWACS reconnaissance aircraft are expected to deploy from a base in Geilenkirchen to a Turkish air field in Konya, German media reported.

Earlier this month, Germany pulled a Patriot missile battery out of Turkey, where anti-aircraft missiles had been stationed for the past three years. In October, the U.S. also ended its nearly three-year Patriot mission in Turkey, where alliance air defense systems were deployed in response to Ankara’s concerns about errant shelling from Syria.

Spain continues to provide Patriot air defense missiles to Turkey, but allies are now relying more on fixed-wing aircraft to perform air defense operations in the region.

Germany recently sent a small group of Tornado reconnaissance jets to Turkey to provide additional surveillance support in the campaign against the Islamic State in Syria.

The German military plays a small but growing role in the U.S.-led campaign against the Islamic State group. In recent months, U.S. leaders have been urging allies to do more in the fight against the militant organization, which controls territory across large sections of Syria and Iraq.

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