AWACS, which reconnoitre the skies from the eastern Pacific to the Caribbean searching for signs of drug trafficking.

ECONOMIST: A looming fight over the drug war

This weakness came to the fore most prominently in 1981 with the Reagan administration's decision to sell AWACs spy planes to the Saudis.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: America's best friends

It has purchased 300 to 400 Russian Sukhoi Su-27 fighters and Su-30 fighter-bombers, plus Russian A-50 AWACS and anti-air and ground attack missiles.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: Center For Security Policy

Goodrich enlisted when he was just 18, and went into Afghanistan as an avionics technician servicing the AWACs planes that guide fighters and bombers.

FORBES: Written by Jim Motavalli

In the end, the AWACs were not used against Israel.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: America's best friends

As is the case with the US's current proposed arms sale to the Saudis, back then Israel perceived the AWACs sale as a strategic threat to its national security.

CENTERFORSECURITYPOLICY: America's best friends

Last year Ecuador's government ended the lease under which American AWACS and Orion aircraft flew surveillance missions to spot drug movement in the eastern Pacific from a base at Manta.

ECONOMIST: Hoist on the petard of a dissuasive defence agreement