Flying operations at Geilenkirchen ended in January 1968 and the installation was handed over to the German Air Force in March 1968.

Following NATO's decision to establish the NATO Airborne Early Warning and Control Force program and to make the base near Teveren the Main Operating Base (MOB) of the E-3A Component, a major construction program was started in 1980 to modify the operational and support facilities.

The component was officially activated on 28 June 1982 and reached full operational capability by the end of 1988.

Major construction on the base initially included a new 3,000-metre (9,800 ft) runway with a width of 45 metres (148 ft), as well as aprons and taxiways, a control tower, an information technology wing building (which also houses flight simulator and mission simulator facilities), on-base accommodation and major renovation of the four existing hangars.

[1] The Component commander's position is of brigadier general rank and is held alternately by Germany and the USA.

Since coming into service in the early 1980s, the aircraft and their onboard systems and associated ground-based equipment have undergone regular upgrading.

These numbers are under the assumption that the economic impact models used for bases located within the US transfer without modification to the EU situation.

[2] The fleet of E-3s has remained in operation since the Cold War and has adapted its mission to emerging security threats, primarily in European airspace.

Despite stringent self-imposed flight restrictions, including conducting a significant portion of training flights at different airfields throughout Europe and North America, E-3A operations in Geilenkirchen cause noise pollution,[3] according to a recent study by the Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, affecting over 40,000 citizens of Parkstad Limburg across the nearby German-Dutch border,[4][5] who have formed an NGO aiming to stop AWACS flights.