Support: August 9, 2002

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The seven nations of the European Air Group (Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, and United Kingdom) have studied the situation and come to the realization that they have almost no capability for combat search and rescue of downed pilots behind enemy lines. They have set up a working group to share what knowledge they do have and are studying ways to build such a capability, which might involve having different countries provide different elements of a future system and then trying to integrate them in combat. In the meantime, they will have to rely on US Marine and US Air Force teams with a demonstrated capability in such missions.--Stephen V Cole