Operation Eagle Assist

Overview

Operation Eagle Assist was a NATO operation where AWACS aircraft patrolled the skies over the United States following the September 11 attacks.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Significance

Operation Eagle Assist marked the first time NATO invoked Article 5 of the Washington Treaty, treating the September 11 attacks as an armed attack against all member states. In practical terms, the operation deployed NATO AWACS aircraft to patrol American airspace, freeing US assets for operations elsewhere in the emerging War on Terror. Its broader importance lay in the collective-defense precedent it set: a multinational alliance assumed active airspace security duties on behalf of a member state on its own soil, signaling allied solidarity at the opening of the post-9/11 military campaign.