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AIR FORCES MONTHLY (AUGUST 2020) Flipbook PDF
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Colombian Air Force
Italian Typhoons
F-2000 on the front line
Officially the world’s number one authority on military aviation
Long-Range Russia’s
Aviation
Singaporean air power Making naval aviators Punching above its weight
Wings of Gold
Issue 389 August 2020 £4.99
strategic bombers
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Comment
Flying the flag Voyager KC2 ZZ336 refuels two Lightnings from No 617 Squadron during Exercise Crimson Ocean on June 26. According to the RAF, the new paint scheme will better reflect the aircraft’s VIP mission and contribution to ‘Global Britain’. Crown Copyright
T
he appearance of RAF Voyager KC2 ZZ336 in its new ‘Brand Britain’ colour scheme in late June was met with enthusiasm, but also some consternation. As speculation built in the lead-up to the roll-out, the popular press picked up on one unnamed defence source reportedly saying the new design sounded like something “from Austin Powers”. Once it finally broke cover at Cambridge City Airport, there was some alarm on social media that the Union Flag had been applied the wrong way round (it hadn’t). Ultimately, most concern centred on the cost of the endeavour – a reported £900,000. While it was confirmed in parliament that this included “related costs”, it’s unclear exactly what these were. Since the Voyager fleet is operated under a private finance initiative with AirTanker, costs of routine maintenance, for example, should be built into the existing deal.
While many other nations operate a dedicated, specially painted transport for long-haul work, it’s noteworthy that the dualrole ZZ336 has been used as a quick reaction alert (QRA) response aircraft when not being flown on VIP missions. Indeed, the jet has only been used on ministerial business 25 times since its conversion in 2016. The RAF was quick to demonstrate that ZZ336 retains a frontline mission. A day after it returned to its RAF Brize Norton base in Oxfordshire, it was refuelling RAF Lightnings and Typhoons over the North Sea. On July 3, online flight tracking services indicated it was involved in a live QRA mission, supporting Typhoons from RAF Lossiemouth. Sorties like this may go some way to challenging the idea that the RAF will be unwilling to commit ZZ336 to a realworld operation (effectively losing a portion
of its vital refuelling/air transport capability). This issue will be my last as editor of AFM. It has been a privilege to be at the helm of what is rightly regarded as the world’s leading military aviation magazine. This is a publication that I grew up with and I hope that, under my tenure, it has helped foster a new generation of enthusiasts. I would like to extend my gratitude to all the readers and contributors whose support over the years has provided the magazine with its lifeblood. I wish this magazine all success for the future.
Editor: Thomas Newdick Editorial team: Jamie Hunter, Dave Allport, Alan Warnes, Khalem Chapman Head of Content Management: Finbarr O’Reilly Production Editor: Sue Blunt Associate Production Editor: David Taylor Design: Lee Howson Advertising: Ian Maxwell, Debi McGowan Head of Production: Janet Watkins Head of Design: Steve Donovan Head of B2B Sales: Tristan Taylor Head of Distance Selling: Martin Steele Head of Finance: Nigel Cronin Head of Content: Hans Seeberg Chief Digital Officer: Vicky Macey Chief Content & Commercial Officer: Mark Elliott Group CEO: Adrian Cox
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#389 August 2020 // 3
Contents
August 2020 #389
Features 3 Comment
AFM’s opinion on the hot topics in military aviation.
18 Arizona’s fighter town
Kees van der Mark and Rob Conijn report from an action-packed Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, which hosted several deployments, exercises and a fighter pilot competition earlier this year.
36 French Lynx: endangered species
The French Navy has long been one of the main operators of the acclaimed Westland Lynx maritime helicopter. But it has recently been announced that the days of the faithful ‘big cat’ are now numbered. HenriPierre Grolleau reports from LanvéocPoulmic, Brittany, home of Flottille 34F.
42 Search and destroy from the sky
French fighters have been active in the skies over Africa for many years. In the second part of his report from the Sahel, Jean-Marc Tanguy investigates the work of the Armée de l’Air’s strike force at Niamey in Niger.
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46 Royal Squadron rescuer Thomas Newdick discovers how the RAF adapted one of its BAe 146 C3 transports for medical use in record time.
48 Russia’s strategic warriors Part one
Together with intercontinental ballistic missiles based on land and aboard submarines, strategic bombers form part of the nuclear triad. For Russia, they comprise the most important component of the air force. In the first of a two-part in-depth analysis, Piotr Butowski expertly assesses the potential of Russia’s impressive long-range strategic bomber fleet.
56 AMI Typhoon spreads its wings
The Eurofighter Typhoon is now well established in the Italian Air Force’s order of battle. Mauro Zanotto looks back at the jet’s successful path to the front line and its recent operational deployments, while Katsuhiko Tokunaga flies with the 36° Stormo at Gioia del Colle air base – Italy’s biggest frontline F-2000 wing.
66 Dutch Lightnings over Arizona
From Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, Kees van der Mark reports on the training of Dutch F-35 pilots within the 308th Fighter Squadron ‘Emerald Knights’.
72 Wings of Gold
The US Navy runs a mammoth flight training programme to support its operational units as well as those of the US Marine Corps and US Coast Guard, as Dick Wels and Hans Drost discover on visits to Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Florida and NAS Meridian, Mississippi.
90 Postcard from Colombia AFM contributors Elio Viroli and Stenio Bacciocchi share their photos from visits to four of the most important Fuerza Aérea Colombiana (FAC, Colombian Air Force) air bases – Palanquero, Apiay, Melgar and El Dorado.
94 Punching above its weight
Singapore is working through a major modernisation effort that will transform its small but powerful air force, as Roy Choo explains.
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Regular features 62 COMMANDER’S UPDATE BRIEFING: Rotary operations
Within the UK Armed Forces, helicopters can be found in all three services. Having a range of different rotary types and missions in close co-operation via a joint command is a highly effective setup, as Air Power Association President, Air Marshal (ret’d) Greg Bagwell CB CBE explains.
30
30 INTEL REPORT: European LIFT
The face of lead-in fighter training (LIFT) in Western Europe is changing, as Alan Warnes discovers, with a review of the current equipment and prospects for new programs and acquisitions.
86 Attrition
Dave Allport details the world’s most recent military accidents.
98 Coming up
See what’s featuring in your AFM next month.
65 Book reviews
AFM evaluates some of the latest offerings in aviation literature.
78 FORCE REPORT: Argentine Air Force
In the last few years, the Argentine Air Force has faced serious challenges in maintaining its diverse fleet. Horacio J Clariá investigates how
NEWS All the world’s military aviation news, by region 6-7............................... Headlines 8-9 .............................. United Kingdom 10-13 ........................... Continental Europe 14-17 ........................... North America 20 ................................ Russia & CIS
the service has tackled continuous budget cuts and a lack of funding for future acquisitions.
21 ................................. Middle East 22 ................................ Latin America 23 ................................ Africa 24-25.......................... Asia Pacific 28 ................................ Australasia
62 Below: This month’s Force Report examines the fortunes of the Argentine Air Force, an air arm that’s suffered a fair few challenges in recent years. One enduring success story is the ‘Huey’ fleet – this is Bell 212 H-89 (c/n 31141), one of seven survivors. The first eight entered service from May 1978, a ninth was added in 1996, followed by another pair from Israeli Air Force stocks in 1998 and a twelfth from the civilian market in 2006. Of the five losses in service, two were captured by British forces during the Falklands War. Horacio J Clariá Cover: Looking every inch the Cold War warrior, this Russian Aerospace Forces Tu-22M3 ‘Backfire-C’ carries an example of the delta-wing, Mach-4-capable Kh-22 (AS-4 ‘Kitchen’) cruise missile under the port fixed wing glove. As part of a large-scale upgrade of its Long-Range Aviation force, Russia is preparing its Tu-22M3 bombers for several more decades of service. Artyom Anikeev
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#389 August 2020 // 5
NEWS
Headlines
US Navy receives first Block III Super Hornets
THE FIRST new-build Block III Super Hornet test jets were delivered to the US Navy in June, when single-seat F/A18E 169748 (c/n E323) and two-seat F/A-18F 169751 (c/n F287) were handed over at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland. The fighters will be used by Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 23 (VX-23) ‘Salty Dogs’ for a “comprehensive” period of testing, US Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) announced on June 17. Initial
trials at ‘Pax’ include shorebased carrier work and will focus mainly on the hardware and aeromechanical aspects with the F-model. VX-31 will also take the jets to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, to examine software functionality and network architecture. Once testing is complete at VX-23, the two-seater will be ferried to VX-31 ‘Dust Devils’ at China Lake to complete Block III flight testing. The Block III features
an increased service life of 10,000 flight hours and a reduced radar signature, together with a new avionics suite that includes large touchscreen cockpit displays and more powerful computing. Under an approximately US$4bn multiyear procurement contract awarded in March 2019, Boeing is producing 78 Block III Super Hornets for the US Navy and will also perform Service Life Modification
(SLM) to hundreds of existing Block II jets to extend their service life and integrate Block III capabilities. The first operational Block III jet will be delivered early next year, with the initial squadron deployment of the Block III anticipated in mid-2023. Thereafter, plans call for each carrier air wing to field two Block III squadrons – composed of new production aircraft and Block IIs that have undergone SLM – by 2027.
Above: F/A-18F Block III serial 169751 made its maiden flight in June. Boeing has now delivered the first two Block III flight test aircraft to the US Navy. Boeing
HMS Queen Elizabeth ready for carrier strike operations THE ROYAL Navy aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth (R08) has been declared “trained and safe” to conduct carrier strike operations. The announcement was made on June 18 by Cdre Steve Moorhouse, commander of the UK Carrier Strike Group, who said: “I was delighted to act as Inspecting Officer for HMS Queen Elizabeth yesterday and declare her ready for the next stage of her Strike Group programme. After an intensive six weeks testing the entire ship’s company, she is ready to act as the flagship at the heart of my Carrier Strike Group.” Ahead of the declaration, the aircraft carrier hosted UK-operated frontline F-35Bs for the first time, when four aircraft from the RAF’s No 617 Squadron ‘Dambusters’ arrived on the deck on June 9. Commander Mark Sparrow, commanding officer of No 617 Squadron, said: “We are excited to be on board the carrier and we have been training hard to be here. This is the first time the ship’s operational squadron has embarked and worked together.”
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With the jets on board, HMS Queen Elizabeth began an intense period of flying, having previously successfully completed four weeks of basic sea training. The Lightning deployment demonstrated that the jets can successfully defend the aircraft carrier with combat air patrols, including operating as four-ships. After the initial qualification period, No 617 Squadron tested its ability to work with Merlin HM2s of 820 Naval Air Squadron. HMS
Queen Elizabeth returned to Portsmouth on July 2. The Lightnings will complete a second embarkation later this year when the squadron will join the carrier and her task group for a large multinational training exercise with US, European and NATO partners. Meanwhile, the National Audit Office (NAO) has identified concerns about UK carrier strike, pointing to delays to the Crowsnest airborne surveillance
and control (ASaC) programme and lack of timely investment in critical support, sustainment and logistics enablers. The UK plans to declare initial operating capability (IOC) in the carrier strike role at the end of December, ahead of a first operational deployment to the IndoPacific region next year. The NAO report stated that Crowsnest will not have “the full level of radar capability that it expected”, because the programme is 18 months
late. As for the support ships, described as “crucial to carrier strike’s operation”, currently only one is able to resupply the carriers and the cancellation of a recent competition to build new supply vessels means they will not be available until the late 2020s. Finally, while the UK has ordered 48 F-35Bs, it has not yet committed to buying more and deferred receipt of seven of the jets to 2025, a year later than planned, because of financial pressures.
Above: Two of the four No 617 Squadron F-35Bs that embarked on HMS ‘Queen Elizabeth’ for the first round of carrier sea training by an operational UK Lightning squadron. Crown Copyright
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New evidence of Russian aircraft in Libya
Above: Another view of al-Jufra showing a MiG-29 emerging from a hardened aircraft shelter, as well as a ‘Spoon Rest’ early warning radar. AFRICOM Left: A Su-24 takes off from al-Jufra air base. AFRICOM
UNITED STATES Africa Command (AFRICOM) has issued more photos of Russian aircraft active over Libya. The June 18 release showed a Su-24 taking off from al-Jufra air base near Sirte and a MiG-29 emerging from a hardened
aircraft shelter at the same location. According to AFRICOM, the jets – delivered to Libya in late May – are operating in support of private military companies (PMCs) sponsored by the Russian government. In late May, AFRICOM
reported that at least 14 MiG29s and several Su-24s had been flown from Russia to Khmeimim air base in Syria, where their Russian markings were painted over to conceal their origin. These aircraft were then flown into Libya in violation of the United Nations
arms embargo (see Russian jets arrive in Syria, July, p6). Col Chris Karns, director of AFRICOM public affairs, said: “We know these fighters were not already in Libya and being repaired. Clearly, they came from Russia. They didn’t come from any other country.”
First operational CMV-22B arrives at NAS North Island AN INITIAL CMV-22B for operational use arrived at Naval Air Station North Island, California, on June 22. The carrier on-board delivery (COD) variant of the MV-22B tiltrotor is assigned to Fleet Logistics MultiMission Squadron 30 (VRM30) ‘Titans’, the US Navy’s first CMV-22B squadron. VRM-30 was established on
December 14, 2018, to begin the transition from the C-2A Greyhound to the CMV-22B. The initial aircraft for VRM30, serial 169437 (c/n D2003), is the third of the new variant to be delivered. In February and May, two other CMV22Bs – 169435 (c/n D2001) and 169436 (c/n D2002) – were assigned to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, for
developmental testing with Air Test and Evaluation Squadron 21 (HX-21) ‘Blackjacks’. The CMV-22B will be responsible for conducting high-priority cargo and passenger transport services in support of carrier strike groups and task forces. The Osprey offers increased operational range, faster cargo loading/unloading,
increased survivability and enhanced beyondline-of-sight capabilities. The US Navy plans to achieve initial operational capability and first deployment with the CMV-22B next year, aboard USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70). The programme of record for the Osprey COD variant is 48 examples, of which 39 are currently under contract.
CMV-22B 169437 (c/n D2003) arrives at NAS North Island in California. US Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Chelsea D Meiller
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India seeks additional fighters
IN THE midst of a tense military standoff with Chinese forces in eastern Ladakh, the Indian government approved a raft of military procurement proposals on July 2, including 21 MiG-29UPGs and 12 Su-30MKIs worth a combined US$2.4bn, and 248 domestically developed Astra BVRAAMs worth an undisclosed amount. The MiG-29s will be overhauled and upgraded in Russia, and will add a new Russian mission computer to the existing MiG-29UPG configuration, enabling new weapons and sensors to be introduced. The additional computer will also be added to the Indian Air Force’s existing 59 MiG-29UPGs. At an estimated value of US$992m, the MiG-29 portion of the contract is seen as a relatively cheap and quick way to add a squadron of fighters to the IAF’s rapidly declining combat force. The Su-30MKI deal, on the other hand, will account for attrition, and almost a third of the estimated US$1.43bn cost will be spent on new equipment and modifications to improve capability and resolve longstanding performance issues with the type. Angad Singh
#389 August 2020 // 7
NEWS
United Kingdom
No 12 Squadron begins joint Qatari-UK training NEW MARKINGS for No 12 Squadron have started to appear on the unit’s Typhoons as it begins training as a joint Qatari-UK squadron. On June 19 it was announced that the RAF and Qatar Emiri
Air Force (QEAF) Typhoon Squadron at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, had commenced flying as a joint unit. No 12 Squadron will provide the QEAF with Typhoon operating experience as the
Gulf state prepares to receive its first aircraft in 2022. The flags of both nations were raised at RAF Coningsby in mid-June as Typhoons flew for the first time with the new squadron markings.
Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said: “No 12 Squadron is a testament to our enduring friendship and commitment to Qatar, the only nation with which the UK has a joint squadron. Together we are
protecting populations and securing our mutual interests across the Middle East.” Established on July 24, 2018, No 12 Squadron is the first joint squadron in the RAF since World War Two.
Typhoon FGR4 ZK361 ‘361’ is one of the jets to have received No 12 Squadron’s new markings, including a badge on the tail combining British and Qatari flags. Other jets noted in these colours include ZK369. Derek Bower
New colour scheme tested on RAF Tutor A NEW black and yellow colour scheme is being trialled for the RAF Grob Tutor T1 fleet. On May 14, No 6 Flying Training School Tutor T1 G-BYXH ‘XH’ was delivered from RAF Wittering, Cambridgeshire to MOD Boscombe Down, Wiltshire using Army Air Corps (AAC) callsign ‘AA765’, reportedly for tests
MQ-9B ground tests with Brimstone and Paveway IV AIR MARSHAL Sir Julian Young, Chief of Materiel (Air) at the UK Ministry of Defence, revealed on June 12 that General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) has carried out a first trial fit of MBDA Brimstone missiles and Raytheon Paveway IV laserguided bombs on the first production-representative MQ-9B SkyGuardian remotely piloted air system. The test on the companyowned airframe, c/n BC03, was part of the development of the Protector RG1 for the RAF. An image of
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BC03 released at the same time showed it fitted with three Brimstones on the outer weapons pylon and a Paveway IV on the inner pylon of the port wing while undergoing ground vibration tests. BC03 has 97% commonality with the RAF Protector variant. The maiden flight of BC03 had taken place on March 30 this year (see SkyGuardian flight paves way for UK’s Protector, June, p8). The first Protector to be delivered to the RAF, BC04 (also known as UK1), will be the next airframe to be
produced by GA-ASI and it is currently scheduled for delivery to the RAF in October 2021. BC04 is already in production, but once complete it will be used for combined system tests and weapons trials prior to delivery. The RAF Protector fleet will be operated by No 31 Squadron and based at RAF Waddington, Lincolnshire. Current plans envisage the RAF acquiring 16 Protectors, with options on a further ten. Initial operating capability with the type is planned for November 2023. Dave Allport
with the new scheme. It was flying again in the local area on June 1 and June 16. It is reported that these trials are being undertaken by Southampton UAS/2 AEF – one of the resident University Air Squadrons (UAS) at Boscombe Down. It remains unclear why an AAC callsign was being used for the delivery flight. Dave Allport
Left: The new high-conspicuity scheme on Tutor T1 G-BYXH is inspired by the old yellow and black colours applied to the Slingsby T-67M Fireflies of the Joint Elementary Flying Training School. The trainer has an overall yellow upper surface, with black undersides featuring a white registration. The spinner and aerials remain white. Andy Shelton
Above: The first production MQ-9B (c/n BC03) undergoing ground vibration testing, fitted for the first time with a Paveway IV bomb and three Brimstone missiles under the port wing. RAF
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RAF Voyager repainted in VIP colours
Above: Voyager KC2 ZZ336 demonstrates its refuelling capability during its first operational tasking on June 26, when it topped up RAF Lightnings and Typhoons during Exercise Crimson Ocean off the North East coast. Crown Copyright
RAF VOYAGER KC2 ZZ336 has returned to service following a refurbishment that provides a special colour scheme incorporating the Union Flag. After weeks of work with Marshall Aerospace and
Defence Group, the Voyager returned to RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire on June 25, using the callsign ‘Ascot 622’. The jet had originally arrived at Cambridge City Airport on June 9 to have its new VVIP scheme applied.
The aircraft – which has apparently been named Vespina, after the callsign used for VVIP missions – will be used to provide “secure, cost-effective and suitably profiled transport for government ministers
and the Royal Family”, alongside its original use in air-to-air refuelling and personnel transport roles. Prior to receiving its new livery, the interior of ZZ336 was converted to provide VVIP transport. The
rework was announced as part of the 2015 Strategic Defence and Security Review, with the aim of providing a more economical way of transporting ministers rather than the use of charter aircraft.
RAF Pumas end three-month COVID-19 support task at Kinloss THREE RAF Puma HC2s temporarily based at Kinloss Barracks to support the Scottish Ambulance Service (SAS) in the coronavirus fight, have returned to their base at RAF Benson, Oxfordshire after nearly three months in Scotland. After departing from Kinloss on the morning of June 12, the three Pumas – XW213, ZA935 and ZA940, callsigns ‘Ambush 1-3’ – made a stop at Edinburgh Airport. As they continued south, they briefly touched down
at Beacon Barracks, MOD Stafford, Staffordshire to drop off Tactical Supply Wing personnel who had supported the deployment. They completed their journey to RAF Benson that afternoon. The aircraft and crews from Benson had responded to an urgent request in March from the SAS to provide it with an interim ability to move infectious patients by air – especially vital to remote highland and island communities.
The RAF support gave the SAS the time to build its own infectious patient airlift capacity. While in Scotland, the RAF aircrews took advantage of the Scottish mountains and wilderness areas to train for future operational deployment to Afghanistan. Should circumstances dictate, the Ministry of Defence can swiftly redeploy the aircraft in support of the Scottish authorities. Dave Allport
Above: One of the RAF Puma HC2s during operations at Kinloss Barracks, which ended on June 12 when all three helicopters returned home to RAF Benson. RAF
Low-level Lightning in the Lakes RAF F-35B Lightning ZM145 ‘011’ thunders over Thirlmere Lake, Cumbria on June 25. The jet, from No 207 Squadron – the operational conversion unit at RAF Marham, Norfolk – was part of a two-ship with ZM149 ‘015’, conducting low-level work in the Lake District’s Low Flying Area 17 (LFA17). On June 11 another pair of Lightnings – ZM145
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and ZM147 ‘013’ – were seen over Dunmail Raise, apparently the first time an RAF Lightning two-ship had gone low level through the Lake District; the previous occasion involved a singleship, callsign ‘Marham 22’ on November 12 last year. For the June 11 mission, the jets used the callsigns ‘Doom 31’ and ‘Doom 32’, with the latter unconfirmed.
James Hicks
#389 August 2020 // 9
NEWS
Continental Europe
First KC-30 for the MMU arrives
Above: Serial T-055 (MRTT055/M2) – the first A330 MRTT for the MMF – takes off from Getafe, Spain, for a pe-delivery test flight. The entire fleet will be registered by the Dutch military aviation authority and therefore will wear RNLAF roundels and serials. Airbus Defence and Space
THE MULTINATIONAL MRTT Unit (MMU) took delivery of its first KC-30 (A330-243) Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) at Eindhoven Air Base, the Netherlands, on June 30. Handover of serial T-055 (MRTT055/M2) marked a major milestone for NATO and the European partners in the programme that was initiated by the European Defence Agency (EDA) in 2012. To date, eight aircraft have been ordered, to form the Multinational MRTT Fleet
(MMF). The second aircraft was due to be delivered to Eindhoven at the end of July; deliveries of the other six will be completed by the end of 2024. Several organisations and countries are involved in the European defence co-operation to jointly purchase and operate the KC-30. NATO’s OCCAR (Organisation for Joint Armament Cooperation) agency is responsible for the acquisition phase and the first two years of operation.
Authority will then transfer to the NSPA (NATO Support and Procurement Agency) that will be responsible for life-cycle management of the fleet. The aircraft will be operated within the MMF and flown by crews assigned to the MMU. The EDA initiated an MRTT acquisition effort in 2012. Two years later, the MMU was activated with the Netherlands taking the lead in the programme. Several European countries showed an interest in joining the MMU and, when the
decision was made to buy new aircraft, both Boeing Defense (KC-46A) and Airbus Defence and Space (A330 MRTT) were invited to submit bids. The latter was selected and was requested to submit its bid for proposal. On July 28, 2016 Luxembourg and the Netherlands became the first countries to sign a contract, for two aircraft. Since 2016, four more countries have joined the MMU: Germany, Norway, Belgium and the Czech Republic. Six aircraft
have been ordered for these members – five with the accession of Germany and Norway, and one when Belgium joined. The contract with Airbus includes an option for a further three aircraft. The KC-30s will be operated as a pool, with five aircraft at Eindhoven in the Netherlands and three at Cologne, Germany. Eindhoven serves as the main operating base and Cologne as forward operating location. Manolito Jaarsma
Final flight for Portuguese FAP Epsilon fleet moves to Beja Alouette III
Above: The last active FAP Alouette III was serial 19376, which still sported the fleet’s 50th anniversary commemorative livery. FAP
AN OFFICIAL farewell flight of the last operational SE3160 Alouette III in Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP, Portuguese Air Force) service took place on June 16. The type’s last sortie with the FAP took place the next day. Since its first flight in Portuguese colours on June 18, 1963, the FAP’s Alouette III fleet – which comprised as many as 142 airframes – exceeded 330,000 flight hours across 57 years of service. A low-
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key ceremony – due to the COVID-19 situation – was held by Esquadra 552 at Base Aérea No 11 in Beja and was attended by Portuguese defence minister João Gomes Cravinho and FAP Chief of Staff General Joaquim Borrego. The FAP’s Alouette IIIs were used in combat in Portugal’s counterinsurgency wars in Angola, Mozambique and Guinea-Bissau. Between 2000 and 2002, it returned to a war footing on peacekeeping
missions in East Timor. By 2019, only three airframes (19302, 19376 and 19401) were airworthy, and the first two AW119 MkII Koalas arrived to take over its transport, search and rescue and training missions. However, since the Koalas have no military certification, the Portuguese government is looking for a light to medium tactical helicopter to complement the FAP’s heavier EH101 Merlin in combat missions. Paulo Mata
THE FORÇA Aérea Portuguesa (FAP, Portuguese Air Force) has relocated its TB30 Epsilon fleet from Base Aérea No 1 in Sintra – from where they had operated since 2009 – to BA11 in Beja. The move means a return to the base that housed Esquadra 101 between 1994 and 2009. On June 17, a formation of seven aircraft – led by serial 11402, in the commemorative livery marking the fleet’s 100,000 flight hours and 30 years of operations – arrived at Beja, where they were received
with a small ceremony. Esquadra 101 operates a fleet of 16 Epsilons, from a total of 18 received in 1989. BA1 Sintra, meanwhile, is set to receive the two FAP rotary-wing squadrons – Esquadra 751 (EH101 Merlin, currently based at BA6 Montijo) and Esquadra 552 (AW119 MkII Koala, now based at BA11 Beja) – joining the Academia da Força Aérea’s DHC-1 Chipmunks and fleet of gliders. These changes are a part of a wider reorganisation to avoid confliction with civilian airspace. Paulo Mata
The first seven Esquadra 101 Epsilon trainers arrive at BA11 Beja on June 17. Paulo Mata
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Belgium plans to retire Luftwaffe A400M on COVID-19 NH90 TTH, SF260 and support flight to Africa B-Hunter UAV IN LATE June it was revealed that the Belgian Air Component plans to significantly reduce flying hours allocated to its four NH90 Tactical Transport Helicopters (TTH). Currently, it’s considered there are too few aircraft to operate them efficiently and that keeping the crews qualified is prohibitively expensive. The helicopters reportedly require much more maintenance than anticipated, compounded by a shortage of skilled technicians and what the defence ministry describes as flawed industrial support (more specifically, problems with deliveries of spares). The current cost per flying hour is around €10,000 – more than for an F-16. Providing the high number of flying hours required to keep crews qualified on different tasks has not been possible due to low availability rate. During its career, the NH90 TTH has only deployed once in an operational environment – when two helicopters were based in Mali for six months in early 2018. Around 150 flying hours were completed during this mission. On June 24, the defence ministry announced that it would reduce annual NH90 TTH flying hours from 1,000 to 600 hours (so that the expensive 300, 600 and 900-hour maintenance cycles could
be postponed). A number of alternatives are being studied that would permit a final withdrawal in 2024. It is rumoured that the NH90s and perhaps the ten or so remaining A109BAs could be replaced by 14-15 H145Ms. The NH90 TTH was part of an order for eight NH90s – including four NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) versions – placed in 2005, but only officially signed in 2007. The first TTH entered service with the Belgian Air Component in December 2012 and the type is operated by 18 Squadron, part of 1 Wing at Beauvechain air base. The second aircraft facing the axe is the SF260M/D primary trainer, currently operated by 5 Squadron at Beauvechain. This type is planned for withdrawal in 2024. A first batch of 36 SF260Ms entered service from late 1969, and were supplemented by nine SF260Ds from 1992 onwards. It’s currently unclear if the type will be replaced. The final type due to leave the inventory is the IAI/Eagle B-Hunter UAV operated by 80 Squadron at Florennes. Retirement was already scheduled but has been brought forward by around four months. This will enable the 80 Squadron personnel to start preparing for introduction of the MQ-9B SkyGuardian, scheduled for 2023. Laurent Heyligen
German Ambassador in Tunis
LUFTWAFFE A400M 54+26, callsign ‘GAF231’, arriving at Tunis-Carthage International Airport, Tunisia, on June 17 from its base at Wunstorf, Germany, loaded with medical equipment and supplies for a Tunisian military hospital to help with the fight against COVID-19. This was the
fourth such flight since the virus took hold in Tunisia earlier in the year. The aircraft then flew to Djibouti-Ambouli International Airport and, after a night stop, continued on to Julius Nyerere International Airport, Dar es-Salaam, Tanzania, before returning to Djibouti
to pick up German Navy personnel who had been deployed on EUNAVFOR operations. The airlifter then headed for home via a fuel stop at Heraklion, Crete, before arriving back at Wunstorf on June 20. In total, it covered 9,162nm in 23.45 flying hours over three days. Dave Allport
Dutch NH90 returns from Gulf deployment
NH90 NFH N319 lands at its home base of De Kooy on June 26 after returning from the first Dutch EMASOH deployment. Kees van der Mark
Above: Unconfirmed reports suggest that Belgium may try to sell its four NH90 TTHs to Luxembourg. Back in 2017, Luxembourg confirmed plans to acquire three NH90s together with Belgium, but this hasn’t yet happened. Laurent Heyligen
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DUTCH DEFENCE Helicopter Command (DHC) NH90 NATO Frigate Helicopter (NFH) serial N319 of 860 Squadron returned to its home base, De Kooy Naval Air Station, on June 26. The helicopter had completed a five-month deployment in the Gulf on board the air defence and command frigate HNLMS De Ruyter. The warship and helicopter operated
in the region as part of the European Maritime Awareness in the Strait of Hormuz (EMASOH) mission between February 18 and June 8, contributing to maritime security and monitoring shipping in the region. The EMASOH mission was initiated as a response to a series of incidents in the Gulf last year, in which oil tankers were seriously damaged in attacks, while others
were seized by Iran. During its deployment, the NH90 was fitted with a full set of sensors and self-defence equipment, including two Terma Modular Aircraft Survivability Equipment (MASE) pods mounted on both sides of the fuselage, introduced in 2018. For N319, this was the third shipbased deployment for an operational mission since 2016. Kees van der Mark
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Captor-E radars for German and Spanish Typhoons
Above: Eurofighters from the Luftwaffe’s Taktisches Luftwaffengeschwader 31 ‘Boelcke’ took part in Exercise Magday with the RAF over the North Sea on June 25. Germany’s Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 jets are now set for an AESA radar upgrade. Crown Copyright
AIRBUS DEFENCE and Space has secured a contract to supply and integrate 115 Captor-E active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars for the German and Spanish Eurofighter fleets. The contract covers 110 Captor-E radars for Germany and an
initial batch of five for Spain; all are to be delivered by 2023 and will equip both Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 jets. For the Luftwaffe, it means the 79 Tranche 2 and 31 Tranche 3A Eurofighters will receive AESA technology. The Airbus sites in
Belgian Alouette III prepares for retirement TO MARK the end of the Alouette III’s service with the Belgian Air Component, a formation flight by the three remaining helicopters took place on June 29, overflying the most important landmarks of the type’s 50 years. In September, the first Alouette III (serial M-3, c/n 1817) will be withdrawn from service, followed by M-2 (c/n 1816) and M-1 (c/n 1812) in June/July next year. In 1971, three Aérospatiale (Sud Aviation) SA316B Alouette IIIs arrived at Koksijde in Belgium to serve with the navy as supply helicopters for ships at sea. The helicopters of
the Navy Flight were flown and maintained by navy personnel, but were part of the air force’s 40 Squadron. They supported the supply ships Godetia (A960) and Zinnia (A961, now retired), and since 2007 they’ve also gone aboard the Karel Doorman-class frigates Leopold I (F930) and Louise-Marie (F931). Due to reorganisation of the Belgian armed forces in 2004, the helicopters were completely integrated within 40 Squadron and are now part of the Belgian Air Component. The type’s missions will be taken over by the NH90 NFH. Wim Houquet
The last three Belgian Air Component Alouette IIIs at their Koksijde base. Wim Houquet
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Manching, Germany and Getafe, Spain will act as an overall integration hub for the programme, while development and production will be subcontracted to a consortium led by Hensoldt and Indra. The equipment itself will
be the Radar 1 version, also known as Captor E-Scan or Captor AESA (CAESAR), and is the next step after the baseline Radar Mk 0 (or Radar 0) that is being procured by Kuwait and Qatar. The Radar 1 adds new modes and a multichannel
receiver. Currently, in-service Eurofighters are equipped with the Captor mechanically scanned radar. Airbus did not reveal the value of the deal, but the German parliament approved an investment of €2.8bn for the Captor-E effort.
Hungary retires final An-26
Above: Magyar Légierő An-26 serial 406 during its farewell flight at Kecskemét. v1images.com/Agota Simon
THE MAGYAR Légierő (ML, Hungarian Air Force) retired its last operational An-26 transport, serial 406 (c/n 03406), with a modest ceremony at Kecskemét air base on June 11. Defence minister Tibor Benkő was among guests witnessing the Curl’s last official flight in Hungarian service. Accompanied by ML Gripens JAS 39C 31/39302 and JAS 39D 44/39842, the An-26 made a flypast over Kecskemét before landing and shutting down its engines, officially ending the type’s 46-year military career in Hungary.
In the speech that followed, Benkő confirmed that the An-26 will be replaced in the near future by a modern transport equipped with a cargo ramp. The An-26 fleet accumulated 83,000 flying hours in Hungarian service, visiting 47 countries and landing at 179 different airports around the globe. A total of 11 different An-26s served the Hungarian military. The first arrived on April 15, 1974, followed later in the year by an additional five. Over the following two years, four more Curls were delivered.
One additional airframe was acquired secondhand from Ukraine in 2004. The sole fatal accident occurred on December 6, 1982, when serial 210 was lost in bad weather, claiming the lives of four crew members. Five An-26s were retired in 1997 and four underwent a general overhaul and lifecycle extension in Ukraine at the beginning of the new millennium. In one of the last ML reorganisations, these transports were assigned to the 3. Szallitó repülö század ‘Teve’ (3rd Airlift Transport Squadron ‘Camel’) at Kecskemét. Igor Bozinovski
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Next two RNLAF F-35As now flying
Above: F-35A serial F-012 prepares to land at Cameri on June 20 at the conclusion of its fourth test flight. Paolo Rollino
A PAIR of F-35As for the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Netherlands Air Force, RNLAF) have completed their first flights at the Final Assembly and Check-Out (FACO)
facility in Cameri, Italy. F-35A serial F-011 (AN11, FMS 18-5405) – the third Dutch F-35A to be built at Cameri – took off for the first time on June 15. It got airborne at
1525hrs and returned at 1630hrs. During the sortie, it was accompanied by Italian Air Force F-2000A Typhoon MM7324 ‘36-41’ flying as chase plane. The next Dutch F-35A
– the fourth from the Italian production facility – serial F-012 (AN-12, FMS 18-5406) began its test campaign on June 18. Both aircraft were scheduled for delivery
to Leeuwarden Air Base in mid-July. They will join serial F-009, which arrived there last October 31, and F-010, which was delivered to the base on December 8.
External fuel tanks for Spanish Army NH90 SEEN PERFORMING ground tests at Albacete on June 2, NH90 HT.29-15/10226 ‘ET-815’ is the last Spanish NH90 TTH for the Fuerzas Aeromóviles del Ejército de Tierra (FAMET, Spanish Army Airmobile Forces) to be assembled in Spain. In future, all NH90s for the Spanish army, air force and navy will be handed over direct from the Airbus Helicopters plant at Marignane, France. Interestingly, this helicopter has a pair of 1,102lb (500kg) auxiliary fuel tanks mounted
on the Heavy Store Carriers (HSC) to extend its radius of action, a feature not previously seen on FAMET NH90s. ‘ET-815’ is the second Standard 2 NH90 to be received by the FAMET. The first, ‘ET-814’, will be delivered to the Batallón de Helicópteros de Maniobra III (BHELMA III) at LogroñoAgoncillo this summer after having been used for integration work on the Wescam MX-15HD electro-optical/infrared turret. Roberto Yáñez
The new 803 Escuadrón NH90 ‘Lobo’ HD.29-16 ‘803-16’ lands at Albacete for the first time. The ferry flight was completed using the French test registration F-ZWCK. Roberto Yáñez
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Roberto Yáñez
First Spanish Air Force ‘Wolf’ THE INITIAL Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) NH90 ‘Lobo’ (Wolf), serial HD.29-16 ‘803-16’ (c/n 1425), was delivered from the Airbus Helicopters plant at Marignane, France to Albacete in Spain on June 18. The flight included intermediate fuel stops at Zaragoza and Cuatro Vientos air base – during the flight between the stopovers, ‘80316’ was joined by a pair of Cuatro Vientos-based Ala 48 Super Pumas, HD.2103 ‘803-03’ and HT.2702 ‘402-25’, to perform a three-ship formation flypast
before landing. From this summer, 803 Escuadrón will operate both the Super Puma and the NH90. After its presentation at Cuatro Vientos, the NH90 took off for the 40min flight to the Airbus Helicopters facility at Albacete, where it will continue test work and customisation for the search and rescue (SAR) role before official acceptance in August. The air force has ordered 12 SAR-configured examples and a second helicopter is expected to arrive before the end of the year. Roberto Yáñez
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First images of F-35 dropping inert B61-12
USAF/416th Flight Test Squadron F-35A 07-0744 (AF-06) ‘ED/416 FLTS’ carries out the first release of an inert B61-12 nuclear bomb during a dual-capable aircraft test flight over Edwards Air Force Base, California, on June 27, 2019. US DoD
A SERIES of photographs from the F-35 Joint Program Office showing tests of F-35As releasing inert B6112 nuclear bombs were published on June 22 on the US government’s Defense Visual Information Distribution Service (DVIDS) website. Although it is well known that the F-35A is planned to be a dual-capable aircraft (DCA, meaning it will be able to drop both conventional and nuclear weapons), this marked the first time any photos of the type testing the B61-12 had been made public. The captions revealed previously unknown details of the tests, carried out by trials F-35As of the 412th Test Wing’s 416th Flight
Test Squadron at Edwards Air Force Base, California, which began last year. The first safe separation took place on June 27, 2019, using development F-35A AF-01. The sixth separation test was on November 7, 2019, again using AF-01. On November 25, 2019, AF-06/07-0744 was used for the first time. The sixth separation test using AF-01 took place on February 6, 2020. The most recent trial shown in the images was with AF-06 on April 2. Nuclear certification of the F-35A DCA is planned for January 2023. The ability to drop nuclear weapons is due to be included in the Block 4 software release for the type, giving it an
initial B61-12 capability. Separately, two successful flight tests with the B61-12 (containing non-nuclear and mock nuclear components) being dropped from a USAF F-15E were completed at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada during March as part of the B61-12 Life Extension Program (LEP), according to press releases on June 8 from the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Sandia National Laboratories. These represented the final weapon system demonstration between the B61-12 and the USAF F-15E. Initial data from the demonstration, which was
flown from Nellis AFB, Nevada, is consistent with the F-15E being fully certified to carry the refurbished bomb. An initial, loweraltitude flight test took place at Tonopah on March 12, with the F-15E releasing the mock weapon while flying almost supersonic at about 1,000ft (305m). A higheraltitude test followed, with an F-15E releasing an inert B61-12 from above 25,000ft (7,620m) at almost Mach 1. The B61-12 LEP will extend the bomb’s service life by at least 20 years and improve its safety, security and effectiveness. Along with the F-15E, the B61-12 will be certified for the USAF’s B-2, F-16C/D and F-35A, as
well as allies’ aircraft. Using a USAF-supplied Boeing Tail Kit Assembly, the B6112 LEP will consolidate and replace the existing B61-3, 4, 7 and 10 variants in the US nuclear stockpile, with the first production unit scheduled for completion in fiscal year 2022. Earlier this year, on April 26, Boeing was awarded a US$127,632,494 contract for the B61-12 LEP by the US Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center. A modification to an earlier award, it provides for the initiation of an undefinitised contract action for Lot 1 and Lot 2 long-lead items. Work is expected to be completed by August 31, 2020. Dave Allport
First four RCAF FWSAR CC-295s completed AIRBUS DEFENCE and Space has completed manufacture of the first four Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CC-295s of the 16 on order for the Fixed Wing Search and Rescue (FWSAR) programme. The company released an image of all four, fully painted in RCAF colours, on the flight line at Seville-San Pablo Airport, Spain, on June 9. As previously reported, the first RCAF FWSAR CC-295 made its maiden flight from Seville on July 4 last year, with the second following in September and the third in April this year (see Third RCAF FWSAR C295 flown, June, p16). The four aircraft currently undergoing flight testing at Seville comprise 295501/183
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(c/n 183, ex EC-005), 295502/ EC-004 (c/n 185), 295503 (c/n 190) and 295504 (c/n 192). The first of these was formally accepted by the RCAF at Seville on December
18, 2019 (see RCAF’s first CC-295 formally accepted, February, p16) and has been retained in Spain for training. None have yet been delivered to Canada.
In addition to the 16 operational aircraft on order, a separate training contract covers three additional CC-295s which will be used purely as Aircraft Maintenance
Trainer airframes. The first of these, 295517 (c/n 187), left Seville on delivery on January 28 (see CC-295 FWSAR trainer delivered to Canada, March, p16). Dave Allport
Above: The RCAF’s first four operational CC-295s on the flight line at Seville on June 9: front to back, 295502/EC-004 (c/n 185), 295501/183 (c/n 183, ex EC-005), 295503 (c/n190) and 295504 (c/n 192). Airbus Defence and Space
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USAF’s last four AC-130U Spooky gunships retired US AIR Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) has retired from service the last four operational AC-130U Spooky gunships operated by the 1st Special Operations Wing’s 4th Special Operations Squadron ‘Ghostriders’ at Hurlburt Field, Florida. On June 3, a farewell flypast took place at Hurlburt involving three of the remaining four AC-130Us: 89-0510, 90-0164 and 90-0165. The remaining aircraft, 87-0128, named Big Daddy, made its last flight at Hurlburt on June 9; this aircraft will be preserved at Hurlburt Field’s Memorial Air Park. On June 26, 89-0510 was the last to leave Hurlburt when it was flown to retirement to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, for storage. The first AC-130U to be retired was 90-0163, which
was stored at AMARG on September 22, 2015. Four more (89-0509, 89-0511, 89-0512 and 92-0253) were
withdrawn in 2018, followed last year by another four (890513, 89-1052, 90-0166 and 90-0167). Disposals this year
comprised 89-1054, delivered to AMARG on March 4, and 89-1056 on March 10. Two AC-130Us completed
the type’s final operational combat deployment when they returned to Hurlburt Field on July 8 last year.
Above: AC-130U 90-0164 on the flight line after its farewell flight over Hurlburt Field on June 3. USAF/Airman 1st Class Hailey M Ziegler
74th EFS A-10Cs return from deployment USAF A-10Cs from the 23rd Wing’s 74th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron (EFS) ‘Flying Tigers’ have returned home to Moody Air Force
Base, Georgia, after completing a five-month deployment in support of Operation Freedom’s Sentinel (OFS). Together with
around 300 personnel, the aircraft arrived back at the base between June 10-12. While deployed, the 74th EFS included personnel from
the 23rd Fighter Group and 23rd Maintenance Group. The unit had departed from Moody earlier this year for the five-month deployment,
arriving at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, on January 16 to provide close air support as part of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing.
A-10Cs from the 74th EFS returning to their home station on June 10. USAF/2nd Lt Kaylin P Hankerson
First KC-46A delivered to Seymour Johnson BOEING HAS handed over its 34th KC-46A tanker to the USAF, the first to be stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina. The resident 916th Air Refueling Wing (ARW)’s 77th Air Refueling Squadron accepted its first of 12 KC-46As on June 12 – the 916th is the first Air Force Reserve wing to receive the Pegasus. Airmen from Seymour Johnson started conversion training from the KC-135R to the KC-46A last winter. In December, the unit sent its first crew to Altus AFB, Oklahoma, for KC-46A
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The first KC-46A for the 916th ARW lands at Seymour Johnson AFB on June 12. USAF/Senior Airman Jacob B Derry
training. Since then it has continued to send pilots and boom operators to Altus and McConnell AFB, Kansas, for qualification training. The 916th ARW is scheduled to receive its 12 aircraft by the end of 2021. Seymour Johnson is the fourth base to receive the KC-46A. McConnell received the first in January 2019, followed by Altus in February 2019 and Pease Air National Guard Base, New Hampshire, in August 2019. Deliveries to date comprise 21 tankers to McConnell, seven to Pease, five to Altus and one to Seymour Johnson.
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Mountain Home F-15Es return from extended deployment USAF AIRMEN and F-15Es from the 366th Fighter Wing’s 389th Fighter Squadron (FS) ‘Thunderbolts’ at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, returned home in June following a
deployment to the Middle East that was extended by two months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The squadron was originally planned to return home from an undisclosed location –
rumoured to be Muwaffaq Al-Salti Air Base in Jordan – in April, but the six-month deployment was extended to eight, a result of the Department of Defense’s movement restrictions. While
there, the ‘Thunderbolts’ flew approximately 13,000 combat flying hours – among the highest ever recorded in a deployment. The squadron was replaced in the Middle East by the
492nd FS ‘Bolars’ from RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk. The Strike Eagles are deployed in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, the ongoing fight against so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
F-15Es taxi to their hangars on their return to Mountain Home in Idaho on June 1. USAF/Airman 1st Class Natalie Rubenak
VMFA-323 departs for final F/A-18C carrier deployment MARINE FIGHTER Attack Squadron 323 (VMFA-323) ‘Death Rattlers’ – part of Marine Aircraft Group 11, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing (MAW) – has departed its home base of Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, for the USS Nimitz (CVN 68). The squadron, under the leadership of Lt Col William J Mitchell, is making the
final F/A-18C deployment aboard a US Navy carrier and officials from the 3rd MAW confirmed on June 10 that it had begun, the squadron having departed Miramar on May 8 to join the USS Nimitz and Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) for the final time. After a predeployment composite training unit exercise
(COMPTUEX) with elements of the Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, the carrier departed from its home port of San Diego, California, on June 8 in support of global maritime security operations. In addition to VMFA-323, US Navy units deploying on the carrier with CVW17 include the Lemoore, California-based Strike
Fighter Squadron 137 (VFA137) ‘Kestrels’ with F/A-18Es, VFA-94 ‘Mighty Shrikes’ with F/A-18Fs and VFA-22 ‘Fighting Redcocks’ with F/A-18Fs. Meanwhile, the Whidbey Island, Washingtonbased Electronic Attack Squadron 139 (VAQ-139) ‘Cougars’ is supplying EA-18Gs, while the Point Mugu, California-based
Lt Col Mitchell, commanding officer of VMFA-323, takes off from MCAS Miramar on May 8 in F/A-18C 165220 ‘401’ to fly out to the USS ‘Nimitz’. USMC/Sgt Samuel Ruiz
Carrier Airborne Early Warning Squadron 116 (VAW116) ‘Sun Kings’ is responsible for the E-2Cs. Embarked on the rotary side are the San Diego-based Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 6 (HSC6) ‘Indians’ and Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 73 (HSM-73) ‘Battlecats’ with MH-60Rs. Finally, Fleet Logistics Support Squadron 30 (VRC-30) ‘Providers’ is bringing its C-2As. One other 3rd MAW unit at Miramar – Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 101 (VMFAT-101) ‘Sharpshooters’ – continues to fly the F/A-18C, but as the fleet replacement squadron for the type, it does not deploy. The last US Navy ‘legacy’ Hornet squadron to go on board a carrier was Strike Fighter Squadron 34 (VFA34), which returned home in April 2018 from a deployment with CVW-2 on board the USS Carl Vinson (CVN 70).
First sortie for 920th RQW HC-130J at Patrick A NEWLY delivered HC-130J Combat King II carried out its first fully operational training sortie at Patrick Air Force Base, Florida, on June 2. The fixed-wing personnel recovery platform, assigned to the 920th Rescue Wing’s 39th Rescue Squadron, came directly off the Lockheed Martin production line at Marietta, Georgia, and went straight to the flight line just two months previously, on April 2. The first training flight marked the start of the ‘crawl’ phase where pilots, combat systems officers
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(CSO) and loadmasters become comfortable operating the new aircraft. In order to qualify in the HC-130J, aircrew returned to train at Little Rock AFB, Arkansas, and Kirtland AFB, New Mexico. The formal school training took an average of seven months to complete. The Combat King II has replaced the HC-130P/N as the USAF’s dedicated fixed-wing personnel recovery platform and the 920th Rescue Wing is the Air Force Reserve’s only HC-130J operator.
A 920th Rescue Wing HC-130J on the ramp at Patrick Air Force Base on June 2. USAF/1st Lt Amanda Ling
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Kadena F-15s deploy to Saudi Arabia
USAF F-15Cs from the 18th Wing’s 44th Fighter Squadron ‘Vampires’ at Kadena Air Base, Japan, have arrived in the US Central Command area of responsibility. The Eagles flew to the Middle East on April 28, but this was only announced by the air force on May 29. According to a press release from Kadena AB, the 18th Wing has deployed to CENTCOM as part of the 378th Expeditionary Operations Group to “defend US and partner nation interests in the region and preserve the international rules-based order”. More than 300 airmen from the wing were flown to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, to support the mission.
Carrying the name ‘Chaos’, applied during its deployment, a 44th FS F-15C Eagle rests on the flight line at Prince Sultan Air Base on June 2. USAF/Staff Sgt Giovanni Sims
First KC-130J delivered to VMGR-452 LOCKHEED MARTIN recently delivered the first KC-130J tanker assigned to Marine Aerial Refueler Transport Squadron 452 (VMGR-452) ‘Yankees’, the Marine Forces Reserve squadron at Stewart Air National Guard Base, New York. A US Marine Corps crew ferried the aircraft from Lockheed’s facility in Marietta, Georgia, to the aircraft’s new home on May 28. VMGR-452 is the second Marine Reserve squadron to operate KC-130Js, replacing the unit’s existing KC-130T fleet. The initial aircraft for VMGR-452 is 169536 (c/n 382-5896), the last of 86 C-130J Multi-Year 2 aircraft supplied under a contract announced in December 2015.
A DCMA pilot taxis F-35A 18-5352 ‘AK’ (AF-243) of the 356th FS after landing at Eielson AFB on June 25. This was the fourth of 54 F-35As scheduled to arrive to Eielson by the end of 2021. USAF/Senior Airman Kahdija Slaughter
F-35A fleet expands at Eielson ANOTHER THREE F-35As were delivered to the USAF’s 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on June 25. The three jets were flown to Eielson by Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) pilots, doubling the number of Lightning IIs at the base.
A total of 54 F-35As are scheduled to arrive at Eielson by the end of next year. The first two F-35As for the resident 356th Fighter Squadron ‘Green Demons’ arrived last April and the third in May. A mix of local-assigned Eielson pilots and DCMA
pilots will continue to deliver the remaining 48 F-35As, enabling the base’s F-35A pilots to continue to train uninterrupted throughout the Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex alongside 18th Aggressor Squadron F-16s and F-22As assigned to the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.
Canadian Hornet upgrade detailed
THE US Defense Security Cooperation Agency has revealed details of planned equipment acquisitions associated with the next stage of Canada’s CF-188 Hornet modernisation programme. Valued at US$960m, the Phase 2 upgrade package will provide Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CF-188s with new Raytheon-made sensors and weapons, including the APG-79(V)4 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, AIM-9X Block II airto-air missile and AGM154C Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW). Also included are electronic equipment, tactical data and support. The US State Department previously cleared Canada to acquire 32 AIM-120D AMRAAMs for the CF-188. The Phase 2 updates will address 36 aircraft from the RCAF’s fleet of 94 jets and will include the 18 former Royal Australian Air Force F/A-18A/Bs acquired two years ago. Additionally, under the Hornet Extension Project (HEP), all 94 Hornets will be upgraded to meet international aviation regulations and ensure interoperability with NATO allies. The Hornet modernisation has been driven by delays to Ottawa’s plan to acquire 88 new fighters to replace the CF-188 fleet. Most recently, a one-month delay was introduced to account for the effect of COVID19 on the bidding teams.
AMC and 19th AW receive final C-130J A BRAND-NEW C-130J was delivered to Little Rock Air Force Base, Arkansas, on May 27, marking the last Super Hercules delivery for the 19th Airlift Wing (AW) and Air Mobility Command (AMC). The final C-130J to arrive from Lockheed Martin’s facility in Marietta, Georgia, serial 17-5897 was the 47th for Little Rock AFB, which is the largest operator of the type in the world; these airlifters are divided between the resident 19th and 314th AW. The former began transitioning from older C-130Hs to the C-130J model in 2004.
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C-130J serial 17-5897 on the flight line at Little Rock AFB on May 27. USAF/Staff Sgt Dana J Cable
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Arizona’s fighter town Kees van der Mark and Rob Conijn report from an actionpacked Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, which hosted several deployments, exercises and a fighter pilot competition earlier this year.
I
t was more than just business as usual at Luke AFB – home to over 170 F-16s and F-35As of Air Education and Training Command’s 56th Fighter Wing (FW) – during the last week of February. Twelve Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) CF-188 Hornets and 140 personnel from the Bagotville, Quebec-based 3 Wing deployed to the Arizona base between late January and early March. Hornets from both 425 Tactical Fighter Squadron (TFS) ‘Alouettes’ and 433 TFS ‘Porcupine’ flew
hundreds of missions over the Grand Canyon State. Also deploying to Luke – between February 24 and March 6 – were F-16s of the Texas Air National Guard’s (ANG’s) 149th FW from Joint Base San AntonioLackland, also known as Kelly Field. The 182nd Fighter Squadron (FS) ‘Lone Star Gunfighters’ brought ten F-16Cs and five F-16Ds to Arizona for the Coronet Cactus training exercise, the final part of the 2019-class student pilots’ F-16 Initial Qualification Basic Course.
Twelve of the jets could be seen flying twice a day. From February 24-28, the air base hosted the annual Haboob Havoc fighter pilot competition as well. Participating pilots compete in two categories: aerial combat and strafe runs on targets at the massive Barry M Goldwater Range, located southwest of Luke AFB. Apart from the Canadian Hornets and locally based F-16s and F-35As – including those of foreign nations incorporated in the USAF squadrons at Luke – the competition saw F/A-
18E/Fs from VX-9 ‘Vampires’ at China Lake, California, and F-16CMs from the 20th FW at Shaw AFB, South Carolina, coming to Luke. Two Canadian-registered Alpha Jets from contractor Top Aces also operated out of the Arizona base during this period. According to reports in the Canadian press, the 433 TFS team took first and third places in precision marksmanship on ground targets. Two other pilots from the squadron took first and third in the airto-air gunnery category.
Above: With the Texas ANG’s 149th FW being a training unit, five out of the 15 F-16 Block 30s from the constituent 182nd FS ‘Lone Star Gunfighters’ participating in Exercise Coronet Cactus were two-seat F-16Ds. Right: The Haboob Havoc fighter pilot competition typically involved participating aircraft flying in mixed formations. Here, a Canadian CF-188 returns to Luke with one of the five Royal Australian Air Force F-35As flown within the 61st FS ‘Top Dogs’.
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A CF-188 from 425 TFS ‘Alouettes’ takes off from runway 03R, while an F-16C Block 25 from the 309th FS ‘Wild Ducks’ has just landed on runway 03L in the background. The deployment of Canadian jets to the Arizona base lasted more than six weeks. All photos Kees van der Mark and Rob Conijn
Above: US Navy F/A-18F 166673 ‘XE-250’ in highviz markings of Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Nine (VX-9) ‘Vampires’ returns to the Arizona base after participating in a large-scale mission involving 48 jets from six nations. This was one of four Super Hornets present at Luke in the last week of February. Left: One of two F-16CM Block 50s from the Shaw-based 55th FS ‘Fighting Fifty-Fifth’ taxies past Luke’s control tower before embarking on another Haboob Havoc mission. The jet carries an AN/ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System (HTS) pod on the air intake.
While many missions flown from Luke in the last week of February were related to exercises, deployments and the Haboob Havoc competition, regular training missions also went ahead. Royal Singapore Air Force F-16D Block 52 94-0282 ‘LF’ from the 425th FS is seen returning from a training mission, carrying special tail markings to celebrate 25 years of RSAF operations from Luke.
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Above: Among the 12 Canadian Hornets at Luke were two CF188Bs, including 188938 from 425 TFS ‘Alouettes’ seen taxiing to runway 03R. Below: Operating out of Luke in the final week of February as aggressor aircraft were two former Luftwaffe Alpha Jet As from Canadian company Top Aces, including C-GYTO ‘082’ in a three-tone brown/green camouflage.
#389 August 2020 // 19
NEWS
Russia & CIS
Myasishchev completes first Russian L-39 upgrade In Brief IN EARLY June, the United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) announced that the EMZ Myasishchev company in Zhukovsky was completing work on mid-life upgrade of a Vozdushno-Kosmicheskiye Sily (VKS, Russian Aerospace Forces) L-39C Albatros trainer. The first modernised L-39C is serial 834417, which previously flew as ‘41 White’/RF-94905 at the 219th Training Aviation Base (219 UAvB) in Michurinsk. The full scope of the upgrade is unclear, an official account stating: “During replacement of nonrepairable and obsolete components, the aircraft received new avionics of Russian production. Also, painting of the aircraft has been completed with domestic enamels.” The L-39C was produced by Aero Vodochody in Czechoslovakia; by 1991, approximately 75% of the total output had been delivered to the Soviet Air
Bear-Hs in Alaskan ADIZ TWO FORMATIONS of VKS Tu-95MS Bear-H bombers were intercepted by USAF F-22A fighters on the morning of June 10. According to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the first Russian formation consisted of a pair of Tu-95MS, accompanied by two Su-35 fighters and supported by an A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft. The second formation comprised two more Tu-95MS supported by an A-50. Both groups of aircraft entered the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ), the first approaching within 20nm of the Alaskan coast and 8nm from sovereign US airspace. However, the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace throughout. The NORAD response involved Raptors from the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska supported by KC-135 tankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). According to NORAD, this was the eighth time this year that Russian military aircraft penetrated the Canadian or Alaskan ADIZ.
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Above: L-39C serial 834417 – the first example to be upgraded – at the Myasishchev site in Zhukovsky in June. UAC
Force. Today, around 120 still fly at six Russian training aviation bases, part of the Krasnodar Military Aviation College of Pilots. Newer and more expensive Yak130s are used for advanced and combat training, while the older L-39Cs are allocated to basic training. In 1997, Myasishchev was tasked with maintaining airworthiness of VKS L-39Cs.
The extent of the work done by the company so far is modest: minor parts (electrical generators, wires, seals) have been replaced. The most serious problem in current operations is posed by the ejection seats – in some aircraft the original Czech VS-1 seats have been replaced during overhaul by Russian K-93. L39 seats. Furthermore, new
Bekas-03 communication radios supersede the previous R-832M. The decision to enhance the L-39C and extend its service in Russia indicates the VKS has given up on a proposal to introduce the propeller-driven Yak-152 as a new primary trainer in this decade. Plans to order around 150 Yak152s have apparently been dropped. Piotr Butowski
Four more new Mi-35Ms delivered to Kazakhstan NEW KAZAKHSTAN Air Defence Force (KADF) Mi-35M ‘09 Red’ arriving at an unspecified air base in the west of the country, most likely the 605th Air Base at Aktau, on June 23. It was one of four delivered on that date, the other three comprising ‘10 Red’, ‘11 Red’ and ‘12 Red.’ They were ordered under a contract signed in January 2017. This brings the total KADF Mi-35M inventory to 12. Dave Allport
Kazakhstan MoD
Fourth EC225LP for Ukrainian Ministry of Interior fleet
SEEN AT the Airbus Helicopters facility in Albacete, Spain on June 3 is the fourth secondhand Super Puma refitted by the company for a Ukrainian Ministry of Interior contract. EC225LP ‘54 Blue’ (c/n 2708, formerly M-ABKJ, PR-YCL and LN-OHY) was overhauled and customised at the Airbus Helicopters factory prior to delivery to the Ukrainian State Emergency Service. The other three Super Pumas already in service with the Ukrainian Ministry of Interior are ‘52, 53 and 55 Blue’. The fourth arrived by truck at Albacete on February 22,
2019 and will be the last of the order to be completed in Spain. While Airtelis in France prepared the first
two examples (‘51 Blue’ and ‘10 Yellow’), Airbus Helicopters in Romania will take on the remaining 15.
Roberto Yáñez
Two new Russian Hips delivered to Kant air base Replacement of older VKS Mi-8MTs at Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan was due to begin before the end of June, with delivery of a pair of Mi-8MTV-5-1 helicopters to the Russian military facility. Crews recently completed training on the new helicopters at Torzhok in Russia. Russia signs new contract for Su-34 production According to Russia’s TASS news agency, the Russian defence ministry has signed a deal for around 20 more Su-34 bombers. The otherwise “standard Su-34 aircraft” will receive modifications based on previous experience with the type. The Fullbacks will be delivered under a threeyear contract, after which a contract for upgraded Su-34Ms is expected. Ukraine wins contract to overhaul Pakistani Il-78 Ukrainian state company Ukrspecexport has secured a contract worth more than US$30m to overhaul and upgrade a Pakistan Air Force Il-78MP Midas aerial refuelling tanker, with options to work on two more. Work will be completed at the Nikolaev Aircraft Repair Plant. A previous Il-78MP was overhauled in Russia. Russia to create tactical UAV unit in Kyrgyzstan By the end of the year it’s planned that a VKS unit operating a pair of Orlan-10 UAV systems will be operational at Kant air base in Kyrgyzstan, part of the Central Military District. According to the Russian defence ministry, UAV crews have completed training in Kolomna ahead of their deployment to Kant. Kazakhstan Border Guard C295W under test Noted test flying recently at the Airbus Defence and Space facility at Seville/ San Pablo in Spain is the sole C295W ordered for the Kazakhstan Border Guard. Marked as ‘176’, the aircraft will adopt the future serial 29501. The single transport was ordered in March 2019 and will increase Kazakhstan’s overall C295 fleet to nine aircraft.
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Middle East
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Rare Royal Oman Police Phenom
VERY RARELY seen Royal Oman Police Embraer Phenom 300 A40-CY visited Malta International Airport, Luqa on June 8. The aircraft arrived from Muscat and
was headed to Seville, Spain to deliver pilots to pick an Omani Police CN235M-100 (see separate item). The Phenom transited back on June 10, together with the
CN235. The Royal Oman Police received this brandnew Phenom on January 19, 2012, when it was delivered to Seeb-Muscat International Airport. An earlier example
Ruben Zammit
had briefly seen service from January to June 2011. The fixed-wing component of the Royal Oman Police’s air wing also includes a single Embraer 175.
Qatari C-130J departs Cambridge A QATAR Emiri Air Force (QEAF) C-130J-30 departed Cambridge City Airport in the UK recently, returning home after a period of rework and a fresh coat of paint with the Marshall Aerospace and Defence Group. Serial 212/A7-MAI left Cambridge for Istanbul, taking off at around 1600hrs on June 11 with the callsign ‘DEMA 121’. The following day it left Istanbul for the final leg of its journey to its home station of Al Udeid Air Base. Still with Marshalls is sister airframe serial 211/
A7-MAH, which will now go into the company’s workshops for similar work. The two are assigned to the QEAF’s Transport Wing, which has four C-130J-30s allocated to its 12th Transport Squadron. A US$393.6m contract for the airlifters was signed with Lockheed Martin in July 2008 and deliveries were originally due to commence in the first half of 2011. The first QEAF C-130J-30 was rolled out at Marietta, Georgia on May 2, 2011 and all four were handed over at the same location on September 28 that year.
Above: C-130J-30 serial 212 prepares to leave Cambridge City Airport. Joe Campion
New look for Omani Police CN235
Ruben Zammit
ROYAL OMAN Police CN235M-100 A40-CU (c/n 062) departs Luqa’s Malta International Airport on June 11. The aircraft had arrived in Malta the previous day, having flown in from Seville in Spain, where it had undergone work with Airbus Military. It departed Malta for Seeb-Muscat International Airport. Unlike the last time this aircraft
transited via Luqa, the aircraft now carries different, lower-visibility markings (see Omani Police CN235 in Europe, February 2017, p25). The two Royal Oman Police CN235M-100 reportedly arrived at Seeb at the end of their delivery flights on February 28, 1983. The other aircraft is serial A40-CV (c/n 063) that was noted at Luqa in August 2017.
Nachshon Shavit seen in Malta THIS ISRAELI Air Force (IAF) Gulfstream GV Nachshon Shavit, serial 679, visited Luqa’s Malta International Airport for a touch-and-go on June 8, before returning to its home station of Nevatim Air Base.
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Operated by the IAF’s 122 Squadron ‘Nachshon’, but devoid of any insignia or numbers, this is one of three examples of the signals intelligence platform that were delivered between June 2005 and August 2006.
Ruben Zammit
Russia claims delivery of MiG-29s to Syria THE RUSSIAN Embassy in Damascus announced on Twitter on June 3 that a “second batch” of MiG-29s had been handed over to the Syrian military “within the framework of defence co-operation” and had started flying missions. A report from the Syrian Arab News Agency said the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) had received the “second group of modern and advanced MiG-29s” in a ceremony at Khmeimim air base in Latakia on May 30. The jets reportedly left Khmeimim for different Syrian air bases. The announcements came days after the US accused Moscow of transferring MiG-29s and Su-24s to Libya – using Khmeimim air base as a staging post. To date there have been no images to confirm the presence of ‘new’ MiG-29s in the SyAAF. The Libyan National Army (LNA) allegedly received 14 MiG-29s and a pair of Su-24Ms from Russian stocks. Russia has denied delivering warplanes to Libya, while US Africa Command has asserted that the jets have been deployed there “to support Russian state-sponsored private military contractors”.
Israeli F-16s back in service
ISRAELI AIR Force (IAF) F-16C/D Baraks damaged by flooding at Hatzor Air Base have been restored by the service’s Aerial Maintenance Unit (AMU) and returned to service. The IAF announced on June 12 that “several” Baraks put out of action by January’s flooding underwent a “significant maintenance process”. Aircraft classified as having sustained a low to medium level of damage were dealt with first at Hatzor and returned to the air “after a short period”. Aircraft that required more repairs were transferred to the AMU’s headquarters at Tel Nof.
#389 August 2020 // 21
NEWS
Latin America
Third KC-390 delivered to Brazilian Air Force
Embraer
THE FORÇA Aérea Brasileira (FAB, Brazilian Air Force) received its third KC-390 multi-mission medium airlifter when serial FAB 2855 was delivered on June 29 from Embraer’s facility at Gavião Peixoto. The aircraft arrived at Base Aérea Anápolis, where it joined join Ala 2’s 1° Grupo de Transporte de Tropa (1° GTT, 1st Troop Transport Group) Grupo Kilo. FAB commander Lieutenant-Brigadier Antonio
Peruvian Enstroms prepared for delivery
THE FIRST Enstrom 280FX Shark for the Fuerza Aérea del Perú (FAP, Peruvian Air Force) has been seen at the company’s facilities. The helicopter, c/n 2168, will become serial 671 once in FAP service, but is currently still on the US civil register as N881QX. The second helicopter in this batch is reportedly N881GE, c/n 2169. The pair was ordered in June last year, being the first examples from a planned total of eight. The Enstroms will replace the Schweizer 300C training helicopters operated by the FAP’s Escuadrón Aéreo de Helicopteros 510 at Base Aérea Capitán Renán Elías Olivera in Pisco, home to the Escuela de Formación de Pilotos No 51 (EFOPI).
Above: A still from a video released by Enstrom on June 18 showing pre-delivery flight trials for 280FX serial 671, currently registered as N881QX. Enstrom
22 // August 2020 #389
Carlos Moretti Bermudez said: “Receiving the third KC-390 Millennium aircraft is a matter of great satisfaction for the Air Force Command, because it will be supporting the missions already [being undertaken] by the other two aircraft. The greatest example is the aircraft’s use for the aerial transport of supplies and equipment for combating and preventing COVID-19, within the operation co-ordinated by the ministry of defence.”
Since the end of March 2020, the FAB has used two KC-390s to transport essential supplies to combat COVID-19 in Brazil. As of mid-June, the health supplies transported included an ambulance, a cell health unit, an oxygen plant, more than 130,000 pairs of surgical gloves, 17,000 N95 masks, 4,080 pairs of glasses, 14,600 units of alcohol gel and 8,800 aprons, as well as logistical and hospital
supplies. The KC-390 has carried cargo rapidly over long distances, including a 1,671-mile (2,690km) flight from São Paulo to Manaus in less than four hours. Deliveries of the 28 KC-390s on order for the FAB started last September (see Embraer delivers initial KC-390 to Brazil, October 2019, p22), with the handover of serial FAB 2853 (c/n 39000004). The second example, FAB 2854, was received last December 13.
Upgraded A-1M delivered THE LATEST modernised AMX A-1M has been redelivered to the Força Aérea Brasileira (FAB, Brazilian Air Force). The upgraded jet – the eighth in total – was handed over by Embraer in March, but its receipt was only announced by the company on June 1. Original plans called for all 55 surviving FAB singleseat A-1A and two-seat A-1B aircraft to be brought up to A-1M and A-1BM standards respectively. The programme has since been trimmed back to include modernisation of 11 A-1As and three A-1Bs. To date, A-1A serials FAB 5506, 5507,
5520, 5525 and 5526 (and three more for which the serials are unknown) have been upgraded to A-1M standard, while A-1B FAB 5652 has become an A-1M; a single-seat prototype, FAB 5530, has also been converted. This leaves three
more A-1As remaining. The prototype aircraft, FAB 5530, arrived with Embraer for upgrade on August 31, 2007, but only returned to the air on June 19, 2012. A first modernised jet was handed over to the FAB on September 4, 2013.
A RECENT update to the US Department of Defense’s Excess Defense Articles (EDA) online listing has revealed that the Dominican Republic requested ten T-34C Turbo Mentors from the US Navy through the EDA acquisition process earlier this year. Authorisation to supply the aircraft to the Fuerza Aérea de República Dominicana (FARD, Dominican Republic Air Force) as an EDA grant followed on May 11; their current value was given as US$341,900. At the same time, authorisation was given to supply one spare Pratt & Whitney PT6A-25 turboprop engine, valued at US$12,821, for the aircraft. The US Navy retired the last T-34C operating in its primary role of basic training on April 19, 2012, having replaced the type with the T-6A/B. A total of 166 ex-US Navy T-34Cs are currently in storage with the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona. It’s assumed those requested for the FARD will be taken from here. Dave Allport
Argentine Huron acquisition A-1M FAB 5520 was one of the earlier A-1As to be upgraded to the latest standard. An eighth example has now been delivered. Agência Força Aérea/Cb V Santos
Peruvian Air Force acquires another 737 THE FUERZA Aérea del Perú (FAP, Peruvian Air Force) is preparing to introduce an additional Boeing 737 to its Escuadrón de Transporte 841, part of Grupo Aéreo No 8 based at Base Aérea Jorge Chávez/ Lima-Callao International Airport. The aircraft, a 737322, manufacturer’s serial 24717 (line number 1930), will be delivered imminently, to join a single 737-528 already in service. Another 737282(A) – the sole survivor from a pair built in 1983 and acquired by the FAP in 1998-99 – was noted in
Ten T-34Cs for Dominican Republic
storage as of last October. Built in 1990, the newly acquired aircraft previously flew with United Airlines as N202UA and was last operated by Dream Wind
Airlines in the Ukraine with registration UR-CRL. The airliner was acquired by the FAP at a cost of around US$3.75m via a US-based broker.
Above: Boeing 737-528, serial 356, is currently the sole active example of the type in the Escuadrón de Transporte 841 fleet. Configured for VIP/VVIP transportation, it was delivered new in September 1995. Katsuhiko Tokunaga/DACT
THE FUERZA Aérea Argentina (FAA, Argentine Air Force) has received permission from the US State Department to purchase ten ex-US Navy Beechcraft TC-12B and UC-12B Hurons via the US government’s Foreign Military Sales programme at an initial cost of US$16.7m. As of April, the FAA was looking to acquire 12 TC-12Bs through the US Excess Defense Articles scheme, but this has now been reduced to nine, some of which will be delivered to the II Brigada Aérea for twin-engine conversion training. A single UC-12B will also be received. The final aircraft are scheduled to be delivered in 2024.
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Africa
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New Angolan Kodiak 100 in Germany MÖNCHENGLADBACH AIRPORT, near Dusseldorf, was recently host to this Quest Kodiak 100 utility aircraft acquired by the Força Aérea Nacional de Angola (FANA, National Air Force of Angola). The aircraft was spotted on June
25 prior to delivery when it emerged from a hangar for around five minutes. Wearing the temporary German civil registration D-FSST, the aircraft is serial R-756 (c/n 100-0252) and its tailfin carries the markings of Angola’s Centro Integrado
de Segurança Pública (CISP, Integrated Public Security Centre). The Kodiak is one of an undisclosed number purchased by the FANA and was in Germany undergoing conversion for mapping duties. Rheinland Air Service (RAS) has
added a cartography mission system developed by SST Flugtechnik; this includes a stabilised cartography scanner and an automatic sliding door in the bottom of the fuselage.
Rolf Flinzner
Morocco orders 24 Apaches
BOEING WILL produce 24 AH-64E Apache Guardian attack helicopters for Morocco. On June 25, the Pentagon announced a US$439m Foreign Military Sales contract modification for both new-build AH-64Es and Longbow crew trainers for Morocco. Work will be performed in Mesa, Arizona, with first deliveries planned for 2024 and an estimated completion date of March 2025. Unconfirmed reports in August last year suggested Morocco had requested permission from the US State Department to buy 24 AH-64Es. Last November 20, the State Department approved a possible Foreign Military Sale of 36 examples (including 12 options), plus related equipment, for an estimated cost of US$4.25bn. Weapons in the package included AGM-114R Hellfire and AIM-92H Stinger missiles, plus Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System (APKWS) kits. Morocco becomes the 17th country to acquire the AH-64, almost 2,500 of which have been delivered to date.
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Latest NAF ATR 42-500MP overhauled in Germany
Above: NAF930 on June 29, making one of its last test flights before departure. Arnold ten Pas
NIGERIAN AIR Force (NAF) ATR 42-500MP NAF930 (c/n 693) is ready to be returned to Nigeria after overhaul in Germany. The aircraft arrived at the Rheinland Air Service (RAS) facilities at Mönchengladbach Airport
last September 16. The NAF’s 81 Air Maritime Group operates two ATR 42-500MPs and a number of Dornier 228s from Benin. Both ATR 42s were ordered in 2007 and delivered to Nigeria in 2009. Originally,
handover of NAF930 was planned in May, but was delayed due to the COVID19 crisis. NAF pilots were flown in on June 24 on board a Falcon 900 to conduct check and ferry flights prior to the return home.
New NAF infrastructure at Katsina
Bangladesh deploys Mi-171Sh to Central African Republic
THREE ARMED Mi-171Sh Hip-H helicopters operated by the Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) have deployed for the first time in support of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), the UN peacekeeping mission in the country. Equipped with night-vision technology, the helicopters (serials 7668, 7669 and one unconfirmed) were loaded on board a UN-chartered Antonov Airlines An-124 at Dhaka’s Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport, Bangladesh, along with associated support equipment and two accompanying airmen. The aircraft left Dhaka on June 20 for Bangui M’Poko International Airport, CAR. An image released by MINUSCA on June 26 showed that at least two of the helicopters were still disassembled and without main and tail rotors, but were being worked on. On May 29, 123 members of the contingent were deployed to the CAR on an aircraft operated by Biman Bangladesh Airlines and chartered by the UN. This team was the first to be deployed at rapid-deployment level (RDL) as part of the UN Peacekeeping Capabilities Readiness System (PCRS). When a troop-contributing country reaches RDL, it pledges to deploy within 60 days of a request from UN Headquarters. Dave Allport
NAF
NIGERIAN AIR FORCE (NAF) L-39ZA Albatros NAF364, along with two Alpha Jets and a C-130H, on the ramp at Umaru Musa Yar’adua International Airport, Katsina, northern Nigeria, during a June 23 visit by Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar. He was there
to inspect progress on a project to build an apron, hangar and aircraft shelters at the airport to support these and other NAF aircraft, which were recently forward deployed to Katsina. The airport is serving as the headquarters of the air component of Operation Hadarin Daji, a mission to
reinforce internal security operations against armed bandits, cattle rustlers, kidnappers and other criminal elements in the northwest and north central parts of the country. The new facilities will also form part of the infrastructure of the new NAF Central Flying School. Dave Allport
Above: With two helicopters already loaded, the third BAF Mi-171Sh destined for MINUSCA operations, 7669, is manoeuvred into an Antonov Airlines An-124 at Hazrat Shahjalal prior to departing for the Central African Republic. ISPR
#389 August 2020 // 23
NEWS
Asia Pacific
Taiwan’s Brave Eagle trainer makes maiden flight
Formosa Military Image Press
THE NEW advanced jet trainer (AJT) for the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF), the prototype XAT-5 Yung Yin (Brave Eagle), serial 11001/08-9001, completed its maiden flight on June 10 at Ching Chuan Kang Air Base in Taichung. It was
accompanied by a pair of F-CK-1D Ching-Kuo fighters on chase-plane duty. This initial 20-minute sortie was followed on June 22 by an ‘official’ first flight in the presence of Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-Wen. The XAT-5 was rolled
out in a ceremony at the Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) factory in Taichung last September 24 (see Taiwan’s Advanced Jet Trainer unveiled, November 2019, p6). Sixty-six AT-5s will be
built for the ROCAF and deliveries of final production aircraft are scheduled for 2026. It will replace the ROCAF’s AT-3 Tzu Chiang jet trainer and F-5E/Fs also used in the training role. A light fighter variant of the AT-5 is also expected.
RMAF renumbers Su-30MKM squadron THE TENTERA Udara Diraja Malaysia (Royal Malaysian Air Force, RMAF) has announced it will renumber its Su-30MKM unit from 11 Skuadron to 12 Skuadron. In a speech marking the 62nd anniversary of the RMAF on June 1, air force chief General Datuk Seri Ackbal Abdul
Samad stated the change was due to historical reasons. The revision is not expected to have any operational impact on the Gong Kedak-based unit. Prior to receiving its 18 Su-30MKMs between 20072009, the then Butterworthbased 11 Skuadron operated the RF-5E reconnaissance
jet – two of which were acquired in 1983. These were then taken on hand by 12 Skuadron and operated together with a few surviving F-5E/Fs. The unit was stood down in the early 2010s when the F-5s were withdrawn. 11 Skuadron is expected to be re-formed to operate medium-altitude long-
endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). The RMAF has received ten proposals to a related request for information (RFI) released in late 2018. While the RMAF has a requirement for six airframes, only three will be purchased in the short term. Roy Choo
Pakistan Navy ATR 72-500 arrives for upgrade A THIRD Pakistan Navy ATR 72-500 arrived at Mönchengladbach Airport on June 28 for upgrade by Rheinland Air Service (RAS). The aircraft, serial 77, assigned to the PNS Mehran-based 29 ASW Squadron, made stopovers in the United
Arab Emirates and at İzmir Adnan Menderes Airport in Turkey before landing in Germany. Previous examples to be converted to anti-submarine warfare (ASW) standard were serial 79 (delivered June 2018) and 78 (June 2019). After modification, the
aircraft will become the Pakistan Navy’s third RAS 72 Sea Eagle and will be configured with the Leonardo Seaspray 7300E active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, FLIR Systems Star SAFIRE III electro-optical and infrared (EO/IR) turret
and Elettronica electronic support measures (ESM) suite. Originally, RAS had signed a deal for conversion of two aircraft, but a contract to upgrade a third aircraft was agreed last April. No contract has yet been signed to convert the fourth aircraft (serial 76). Arnold ten Pas
First F414 engine delivered for KF-X
GE AVIATION delivered the first F414-GE-400K engine for South Korea’s next-generation KF-X indigenous fighter to Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI) in May. KAI selected GE Aviation in May 2016 to supply F414s for the KF-X, a US$7.4bn project that will replace the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) F-4E and F-5E/F fleets. The development programme is scheduled to be completed in 2026, which includes the production of 15 F414 flight-test engines and six prototype fighters by 2021. Flight testing will be launched in 2023. Currently, 120 KF-X aircraft are scheduled for production; GE Aviation will provide 240 F414 production engines plus spares. In related news, South Korea has chosen precision-guided munitions and guidance kits to arm the KF-X. Weapons selected for integration comprise the GBU-12 Paveway II, GBU31/38 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM), GBU54/56 Laser JDAM, GBU39/B Small Diameter Bomb I and the CBU-105 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD). All these stores are currently in ROKAF service and integration on the KF-X will begin this year. The fighter will also carry the Meteor beyond-visualrange air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) and IRIS-T short-range AAM.
Arnold ten Pas
24 // August 2020 #389
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South Korea seeks to add AEW&C and SIGINT platforms
Above: The ROKAF currently operates six SIGINT platforms: two modified Falcon 2000S jets and four Hawker 800 Peace Krypton aircraft. Serial 58-353 is an RC-800RA Geumgang – the local designation for the Hawker 800. Robin Poldermann
SEOUL AIMS to acquire an undisclosed number of additional airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) and signals intelligence (SIGINT) aircraft. South Korea’s Defense Project Promotion Committee approved the
More TA-50s, possible FA-50 upgrade SOUTH KOREA will acquire 20 TA-50 Block 2 advanced jet trainers under a plan approved on June 26. Korean Aerospace Industries (KAI) has been awarded a US$575m contract to deliver the aircraft between this year and 2024. The Block 2 is an upgraded version of the TA-50, 22 of which are now in service with the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF). Meanwhile, South Korea’s Agency for Defense Development (ADD) has outlined plans to improve the range and combat capabilities of the FA-50 light combat aircraft, 57 of which are currently in ROKAF service. An improved version of the Fighting Eagle is required to replace the air arm’s ageing F-5E/F and F-4E jets. Until December, the ADD will study improvements to the FA-50, including conformal fuel tanks, targeting pods and beyond-visualrange air-to-air missiles.
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plans on June 26, while the Defense Acquisition Program Administration (DAPA) said the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF) is expected to acquire foreignmade AEW&C aircraft by 2027 under a project valued at US$1.32bn.
Allegedly, the ROKAF is seeking to acquire two more Boeing E-737 AEW&C platforms to add to the four it has fielded since 2011-12 under its Peace Eye programme. The acquisition process will be launched next year.
Separately, around US$730m has been earmarked for additional SIGINT aircraft under the Baekdu reconnaissance initiative. This project is set to begin next year and be completed by 2026.
RSAF F-16Ds with Condor 2 LOROP recce pods EXISTENCE OF a longrange oblique photography (LOROP) sensor capability on Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) F-16s has been confirmed. AFM has reviewed recent images of RSAF F-16Ds configured with an Elbit Systems Condor 2 electro-optical/ infrared LOROP pod on its centreline hardpoint, operating from their home base at Tengah Air Base. The capability had long been rumoured since the
RSAF withdrew its last RF-5S reconnaissance aircraft in late 2005, seemingly without a replacement. In an interview with Jane’s Defence Weekly in January 2004, then RSAF chief Major-General Lim Kim Choon noted the limitations of the RF-5S wet-film technology and its restricted potential for improvements. He stated the RSAF was investigating options for
a pod system for its F-16s or its then next-generation fighter (F-15SG), specifying that realtime data transmission was a prerequisite. Apart from the Condor 2, RSAF F-16Ds also operate the ELTA ELM20600 reconnaissance and targeting pod, which utilises synthetic aperture radar imaging to provide pictures of ground targets and terrain from standoff ranges. Roy Choo
In Brief Singaporean helicopter deliveries delayed Handover of the first H225M and CH-47F Chinook helicopters for the Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) have been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Originally scheduled for the end of this year, deliveries are now planned for 2021. RSAF acquisition of the F-35B remains on track. ROKAF waits for next F-35As Coronavirus has also affected the planned arrival of the next batch of F-35As for the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF). The next deliveries have been postponed from April until the second half of 2020; 13 of the jets are already in the country and ten were expected to be handed over this year. Philippine Air Force awaits final Hermes 900 UAVs The Philippine Air Force (PAF) is scheduled to receive its final six of nine Hermes 900 mediumaltitude long-endurance unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) this year. Images of the first two PAF Hermes 900s emerged on social media last November, while three Hermes 450 tactical UAVs have also been handed over. Six UH-2 helicopters for JGSDF Subaru Corporation has received contracts worth US$131.6m to produce six UH-2 multi-role helicopters for the Japan Ground SelfDefense Force (JGSDF). The rotorcraft are expected to be delivered by January 2023. Ultimately, the JGSDF plans to field around 150 UH-2s to replace its UH-1Js.
New colours for Bangladesh Air Force Mi-17
Mario Flores
SEEN AT Cox’s Bazar on June 4, Bangladesh Biman Bahini (Bangladesh Air Force, BAF) Mi-17 serial 204 (c/n 223M94) has received a new grey-ongrey camouflage scheme. The BAF operates a diverse Hip fleet, currently comprising three Mi-171, 13 Mi-171Sh and 15 Mi-17-1V aircraft supplied by Mil, and six Mi-171 and seven Mi-171Sh variants from Ulan Ude. Operating units are 1 Squadron at Chittagong, plus 31 and 101 Squadrons at Tejgaon. Currently used as a forward operating base, Cox’s Bazar was designated as a fifth main operating air base in 2011.
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NEWS
Australasia
First RAAF F-35A passes 1,000-hours milestone ROYAL AUSTRALIAN Air Force (RAAF) F-35A pilot Flight Lieutenant Adrian Herenda was at the controls of serial A35-001 as it became the first in the fleet to pass 1,000 flying hours, during a sortie over Arizona. FLTLT Herenda, a former RAAF F/A-18A pilot, had been flying the F-35A for around 12 months. The Australian Department of Defence announced the milestone on June 5. F-35A serial A35-001 was the first Australian aircraft to roll off Lockheed Martin’s production line in 2014. It’s currently operated by the international Pilot Training Centre (PTC) at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona and is one of nine Australian aircraft
New Zealand confirms C-130J purchase THE NEW Zealand Ministry of Defence has confirmed it will spend around US$1.4bn to buy five C-130Js to replace its fleet of C-130Hs now serving with No 40 Squadron at RNZAF Base Auckland. The new Super Hercules will be delivered under the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) programme in 2024 and 2025, allowing a phased retirement of the current fleet. Last November the US State Department approved the possible sale. Defence Minister Ron Mark said: “Last year, Cabinet selected these aircraft as the preferred option to replace the current Hercules fleet. Procurement of the Super Hercules has been my highest capability priority as Minister of Defence.” The project includes a full-mission flight simulator and other supporting infrastructure. The aircraft will also be fitted with additional specialist capabilities, including a wide bandwidth, high-speed satellite communications system and an MX-20HD electrooptical/infrared camera. Next year, it’s expected options will be considered to replace the RNZAF’s two Boeing 757s, expected to reach their end-ofservice life towards the conclusion of this decade.
28 // August 2020 #389
Squadron Leader Chris Myles (left), the Australian participant maintenance lead at Luke, and pilot FLTLT Adrian Herenda, on the Luke AFB flight line in front of F-35A A35-001 after the aircraft reached 1,000 flying hours. RAAF
at the facility. The country has now accepted 26 F-35As in total. In addition to the five at the PTC, 17 are operating
with No 3 Squadron and No 2 Operational Conversion Unit at RAAF Base Williamtown, New
South Wales. The remaining four were scheduled to transit from the US to Australia before August.
RFI released for Hawk Mk127 replacement
THE AUSTRALIAN Department of Defence released a request for information (RFI) to industry on June 2 as it looks to replace the Royal Australian Air Force’s (RAAF’s) Hawk Mk127, which is due to be retired in 2026.
The RFI for a Hawk replacement is part of Air 6002 Phase 1 (Future LeadIn Fighter Training System), which is valued at AUS$45bn and expected to run between 2022 and 2033. Air 6002 calls for a platform on which to train RAAF fast jet pilots and weapons systems
operators, plus a secondary requirement to provide Blue Air and Red Air training. The Department of Defence expects the Future Lead-In Fighter Training System will use a mix of live and virtual training roles, including aircraft as well as full-mission simulators.
Hawk Mk127 A27-07 from No 76 Squadron takes off from RAAF Base Williamtown. The type has recently completed a significant mid-life upgrade under Project Air 5438 but is currently planned for withdrawal in 2026. CPL Melina Young/Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence
Training flight stood up at Amberley
Above: An F/A-18F from No 1 Squadron lands after a sortie during Exercise Thai Boomerang 2019. The parent No 82 Wing has now set up a training flight for the RAAF Super Hornet community. CPL Colin Dadd/Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence
THE ROYAL Australian Air Force (RAAF) has established No 82 Wing Training Flight (82TF) at RAAF Base Amberley, Queensland, to provide operational conversion training for the F/A-18F fleet. This Super Hornet training had previously been conducted with the US Navy since 2005.
The commander of 82TF, 82 Wing executive officer Wing Commander Trevor Andrews, said: “This programme will enable No 82 Wing to provide enduring aircrew training for the entire capability spectrum required for the F/A-18F. We expect significant advantages to be realised through an Australian-based
operational conversion, such as improved delivery of Australian-trained aircrew back into the squadrons, increased standardisation, reduction in duplicate training overheads and increased alignment to Australian graduation requirements.” The training effort will be supported by six F/A-18Fs.
Australia orders third MQ-4C Triton AUSTRALIA HAS committed to a third MQ-4C Triton remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) from Northrop Grumman. The Australian Department of Defence announced the move on June 18, noting that it would “further strengthen Australia’s maritime approaches”. Minister for Defence, Senator Linda Reynolds CSC said: “Once in service, this capability will significantly enhance our ability to persistently patrol Australia’s maritime approaches from the north, in the Southwest Pacific and down to Antarctica.” Australia plans to acquire six MQ-4Cs, plus associated ground-control systems, at a cost of around AUS$6bn. The six Tritons will be based at RAAF Base Edinburgh, South Australia and deployed to RAAF Base Tindal, Northern Territory, as necessary. They will operate alongside the P-8A and replace the AP-3C Orion. On June 25 this year, Northrop Grumman was awarded a US$333,401,760 contract modification exercising options for the production and delivery to Australia of three low-rate initial production MQ-4Cs, two main operating bases and one forward operating base. This is the full contract for the initial three aircraft, the first of which is due to be delivered in 2023.
Last upgraded King Air 350ER redelivered to RNZAF HAWKER PACIFIC has delivered the last of four modified King Air 350ERs to the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF). The Sydney-based company secured the ten-year contract, along with engineering and logistics support for the aircraft and associated ground training systems. They will be used by No 42 Squadron at RNZAF Base Ohakea. Hawker Pacific’s Special Missions design team was responsible for project management and design engineering, while installation and testing were conducted at the firm’s Bankstown facility.
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Intel Report
LIFT European
The face of lead-in fighter training in Western Europe is changing, as Alan Warnes discovers, with a review of the current equipment and prospects for new acquisitions.
F
Serial ZK017 ‘H’, a Hawk T2 of the RAF’s No IV (Army Co-operation) Squadron at RAF Valley in Anglesey, Wales. This unit is one of the service’s two Advanced Fast Jet Flying Training squadrons that provide fast jet conversion and tactical and weapons training for pilots destined for the Typhoon or Lightning. Jamie Hunter
30 // August 2020 #389
ighter pilot training is not easy. It takes several years of dedication as well as a lot of sweat and maybe some tears. It also consumes plenty of taxpayers’ money – around £4m will be spent on a UK pilot before they begin operational conversion. The RAF, and air forces all over the world, need to ensure they protect their valuable pilot assets with the best tutoring their money can afford. Students typically progress through elementary, then basic training and are finally streamed according to their skill sets: to helicopters, multi-engine aircraft or fighters. The latter stream is referred to as advanced, or lead-in fighter training (LIFT). Ultimately, the pilot will complete this phase of training knowing how to use an aircraft as a weapon.
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Left: The new face of lead-in fighter training? One of the Armée de l’Air’s fleet of 17 PC-21s, serial 03 ‘709-FE’, over the French coast. The type was inducted into service at Cognac on October 2 last year. Operated by the École de Pilotage de l’Armée de l’Air 315, the PC-21s are supported by Babcock personnel and flown by French military instructors. Katsuhiko Tokunaga/DACT
In the UK, LIFT requires around 120 hours flying a Hawk T2 alongside around 60 hours of simulation work. In other countries, it varies according to the course and its objectives. Air arms today need to weigh up the most costeffective platform in tandem with simulation. Many LIFT syllabuses are also now taking on more of the expensive fast jet training from the operational conversion units, when pilots learn to master the tactical and flying aspects of a fourth or fifth-generation fighter. After all, flying a Eurofighter or F-35 can cost an eye-watering £100,000 per hour.
UK
Responsibility for the RAF’s LIFT lies with No 4 Flying Training School (FTS) at RAF Valley in Wales. Student pilots fly the
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Hawk T2 alongside ‘synthetics’ (in the simulator), and the Hawks are expected to fly until 2040. Simulation plays a major part in all aspects of military flying training these days, with Canada’s CAE and the American L3Harris among the most popular providers. The RAF’s Advanced Fast Jet Flying Training squadrons are Nos XXV (Fighter) and IV (Army Co-operation) Squadrons, under No 4 FTS at Valley. Both conduct fast jet conversion and tactical and weapons training before pilots’ progress to a frontline aircraft type – the Typhoon or F-35B. Not surprisingly, there is considerably less live-flying nowadays, as Stu Butler, training and operational requirements director at BAE Systems – Air told AFM: “Compared to when I was
training on the Gnat and Hunter, flying has decreased by 30%, largely because of synthetics, which these days are much more dynamic. Of course, you need the right balance. While simulators are excellent for initial teaching, practice and mission rehearsal, pilots need to experience the airborne jeopardy aspect of live flying – particularly in the early stages of training.” Whereas once the three training phases – elementary, basic and advanced – each had their own dedicated aircraft types, the lines that separate them are today more blurred, thanks to the capabilities of new-generation training aircraft. For example, the RAF has recently trialled the 456hp (335kW) Prefect T1 (Grob G 120TP) to take student pilots right through to the Hawk, so missing out the Texan T1 and gaining additional training capacity. The RAF’s fleet of just 11 Texans has clearly become a bottleneck. Affinity Flying Training Services supplies and maintains the 23 Prefect T1s, five Phenom T1s and the Texans within the UK Military Flying Training System (UKMFTS). The company recently announced that two of the RAF’s newest pilots earned their wings in record time, in late May, after completing an innovative RAF College Cranwellbased Prefect Basic Fast Jet Flying Training (BFJT) initiative. After being streamed for fast jets, they
were selected to take part in the Prefect-direct-to-Hawk initiative – a collaboration between the RAF and Ascent Flight Training. An RAF statement described it as: “Part of a wider review aimed at streamlining how student pilots reach the front line,” adding that it would also “in future place greater emphasis on synthetic training developed by Ascent; with virtual reality, mixed reality and 360° video training aids blended with piloting the aircraft.” The successful duo – a squadron leader and flight lieutenant – are the first students to complete the trial under UKMFTS, which could provide an alternative training pipeline path to flying a fast jet. Having achieved their wings in under a year, both will now progress to the Hawk T2 at RAF Valley later this summer. It could pave the way for future fast jet pilots to earn their wings at Cranwell in Lincolnshire, instead of Valley.
Belgium opts for US solution
Since 2004, Belgium was part of a Franco-Belgian fighter pilot training solution, the Advanced Jet Training School (AJeTS) based at Tours, in France. After 40 years of operations, this facility shut down last December, but not before 150 Belgian pilots had trained there on a fleet of Belgian and French Air Force Alpha Jets. After selecting the F-35A in 2018, Belgium opted to go with an American LIFT
#389 August 2020 // 31
Intel Report
A trio of AJeTS Alpha Jets, with AT25 nearest the camera. At the end of last year, the final Belgian Air Component jet pilot students completed their training with the bi-national Advanced Jet Training School at Cazaux in southwest France. The last three Belgian Alpha Jets returned home to Beauvechain on January 13. Stefan Degraef
solution. New fighter pilots are now being trained by the EuroNATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) facility at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, which was set up in 1981. Since then, it has trained 7,500 combat pilots for NATO. It regards itself as “the only internationally manned and managed pilot training programme dedicated to building relationships and training fighter pilots”. One of the responsibilities of the resident 80th Fighter Training Wing (FTW) at Sheppard is training pilots on the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) – another name for LIFT. Students go to the ENJJPT to get their pilot’s wings and they go through the IFF course during their last twoto-three months at Sheppard. Lt Col (ret’d) Carlos ‘Beatbox’ Hartmann, a German Air Force instructor pilot, served at ENJJPT between 2016 and 2019, the last 11 months as chief of IFF training. He said: “One of the advantages of students going through IFF is they fly the T-38C in an organisation, airspace and surroundings they
32 // August 2020 #389
are already familiar with. They can fully concentrate on learning the contents of IFF. However, not all countries send all their students to Texas; some countries get their pilots trained at Sheppard, but do further training modules at home. “For example, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Norway all send their students to Sheppard for pilot training and IFF. Belgium and Canada only send some students to Sheppard for undergraduate pilot training – or parts of it – flying the T-6C and then to IFF. Turkey does pilot training on the T-6C and T-38C, but not IFF. Italy does T-6 training at Sheppard and all follow-on training elsewhere [at LecceGalatina in Italy]. So it’s [down to] each country’s individual taste what to do, where, and with what portion of their students.” He continued: “IFF teaches student pilots to operate the aircraft as a weapon system which means the pure flying (the scope of most civil flight training) needs to be second nature. It’s not only using their own aircraft as a
weapon, but also being taught to be a reliable fighter pilot as part of a team. That’s why in IFF we made an effort to call the students wingmen. We teach them the mindset of a fighter wingman, not that of a student pilot (which they are not any more) who is just graded on his flying. So, a great part is broadening their flying horizon. I liked to say the most important lessons are to know where to point the jet, where to look and what to concentrate on, each at any given point in time.” The former chief of IFF training was asked whether the T-38C’s age now provided any difficulties in this role and he replied: “Fundamentals change a bit over time. So a replacement with characteristics that more closely match current tactical aircraft (or that can fly longer) would be welcome. However, if a student succeeds in a T-38 – and as an aircraft itself it demands quite a lot of attention – then he/she will mostly do well in today’s fighter jets. Some concepts (ie, air combat manoeuvres) can only be
introduced to a limited degree in the T-38 (tiny jet, huge turn circle, no sensors); other concepts like beyond visual range, electronic warfare and standoff weapons are currently not incorporated, but could certainly be with the future Boeing/Saab T-7 Red Hawk.”
Finnish legacy Hawks
The Ilmavoimat (Finnish Air Force) uses 31 Hawk Mk51A and Mk66 jets for tactical training. Both variants of the first-generation Hawk have had their analogue cockpits instruments upgraded by Finnish aerospace company Patria Aviation, adding new glass cockpits that narrow the gap between the instrument layout of the Hawk and Hornet. The 18 ex-Swiss Air Force Hawks acquired in 2007 were upgraded a second time in 2018, with the Hawk Link system designed by Patria enabling the transfer of location data between Mk66 aircraft via an airborne radio data network. The information provided by sensors from a multirole fighter can be displayed on the Hawk’s multifunction display,
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Air crews from the 80th Flying Training Wing’s 90th Flying Training Squadron ‘Boxin’ Bears’ conduct a formation take-off during pilot training in T-38Cs at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. The 80th FTW is home of the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) programme, on which Belgian fighter pilots are now being trained. USAF/Danny Webb
offering students a realistic view of the modern-day air combat environment, according to the Ilmavoimat. There are no plans to replace the 31 Hawks until the 2030s. Major General (ret’d) Lauri Puranen, who commanded the air arm from 2012-14 and is the H-X future fighter programme director at the Finnish defence ministry, told AFM in early 2019: “The two-way data link system has allowed us to transfer a lot of the training from Hornets to Hawks.”
France acquires PC-21s
In 2018, the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) began to take delivery of 17 PC-21s to replace the Epsilon basic trainers serving the École de Pilotage de l’Armée de l’Air (EPAA, French Air Force Pilot School) at Cognac and the AJeTS Alpha Jets at Tours. Pilot training for the French Air Force is being delivered under a programme managed by the Direction générale de l’armement (DGA, France’s defence procurement agency) and known as FOMEDEC (Formation Modernisée des Equipages de Chasse, or
Fighter Pilots Modernised Training Programme). The initiative – managed by Babcock France in partnership with Dassault Aviation under an 11-year contract – delivers a comprehensive pilot training solution including the provision and support of 17 PC-21s, a PC-21 ground-based training system and modernised training facilities. As a subcontractor, CAE has provided two full-mission simulators at Cognac and was contracted in May to supply another in 2022. The PC-21 has an embedded simulation capability to cover radar, air combat and weapons release; the cockpit systems can recreate aspects of the Rafale’s mission management and display systems. While Babcock France runs the programme, the Armée de l’Air is providing its own instructors to train 50 pilots per year, including ten for the French Navy. France became the third European nation to purchase the PC-21, after the Empire Test Pilots’ School in the UK and the Swiss Air Force. But not everyone sees the
A Swiss Air Force PC-21 instructor prepares for a sortie. More than a decade ago, the Swiss training system dispensed with the Hawk and instead uses the turboprop PC-21 for advanced and lead-in fighter training, preparing students for the F/A-18C/D Hornet OCU. Swiss Air Force
PC-21 as an ideal solution for advanced flying training. One very experienced ex-Armée de l’Air fighter pilot told AFM: “I’m totally against a turboprop in the LIFT role. How can proper training be done on an aircraft that flies a maximum of 360 knots, for people dedicated to flying a supercruise-capable jet? In my view, psychology plays a big part in a new pilot stepping into a bigger, faster aircraft and going from PC-21 to Rafale is a huge step. Simulating a sensor is great, but if you don’t explore performance as well you miss something.” André Zimmermann, vicepresident of government aviation at Pilatus, responded to the PC-21 criticism. He told AFM: “The PC-21 was designed to satisfy the requirements for basic and advanced military pilot training and to cover the fighter leadin training phase. The 1,600shp powerplant and five-blade graphite propeller push the speed and climb rate of the PC-21 into an area that was, until a couple of years ago, exclusively jet territory.
“In 2009, the Swiss Air Force demonstrated the ‘proof-ofconcept’ that the PC-21 is perfectly suitable for the advanced and fighter-lead-in training when the first class of student pilots successfully transitioned from the PC-21 directly to the F/A18C/D Hornet fighter. During the last 11 years, all students coming from the PC-21 trainer stream successfully completed their F/A-18 OCU training.” On the simulation of sensors, Zimmerman said: “Yes, we do simulate sensors. One example being the air-to-air radar. We can assure you that the simulated radar is so realistic that most pilots will forget after about 20 minutes of flying that it is only a virtual radar. From a training point of view, there is absolutely no benefit having the real sensor and you get the same quality of training.” As for the cost, Zimmerman added: “The operating costs per flying hour for high-end jet trainers (like the M-346, T-50, Hawk T2) will be in the region of ten times more than the PC-21.”
Above: Poland is building towards a 16-strong fleet of M-346 Bieliks, operated by the 4. SLSz at Dęblin in the southeast of the country. With the new aircraft, the Polish Air Force has a trainer suitable for preparing frontline pilots to fly the F-16C/D Block 52+, to be joined in future by the F-35A. Leonardo Right: The Italian Air Force’s 61° Stormo at Lecce-Galatina has introduced a new training system based on the T-346A, the local designation for the M-346 Master. Phase IV participants with the wing’s 212° Gruppo spend around seven to eight months on the T-346A, which has replaced the FT-339C (MB-339CD2), the ‘digital’ version of the MB-339, in the LIFT role. Leonardo Left: Ilmavoimat Hawk Mk51A HW-357 wearing the colours of the Midnight Hawks display team in a line-up of Finnish trainers taking part in the air force’s Final 20 exercise earlier this year. This involved live, virtual and constructive (LVC) training – including live air combat drills – reflecting the advances incorporated in the upgraded Hawk fleet. Finnish Air Force
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#389 August 2020 // 33
Intel Report
Above: Hungary’s future fighter pilots train on the CT-155 Hawk (and the CT-156 Harvard II) under the NATO Flying Training in Canada programme. This Hawk, from 419 Tactical Fighter Training Squadron at Cold Lake, Alberta – responsible for the LIFT phase – was photographed over Hamilton, Ontario. Corporal Jean-Francois Lauzé/4 Wing Imaging Left: Slovakian L-39CM serial 5251 of the 2. výcviková letka, the 2nd Tactical Squadron based at Sliač. This is one of six L-39C trainers that were upgraded to L-39CM standard, four of which currently serve alongside a pair of L-39ZAM aircraft – former L-39ZA jets, similarly modernised. Peter R Foster
He concluded by saying he expects a fifth major European air force to acquire the PC-21 soon.
Italy
The Aeronautica Militare (Italian Air Force) has completely revamped its LIFT solution in recent years, with the so-called Phase IV at Lecce-Galatina – the home of the 61° Stormo – transferring from the FT-339C (MB-339CD2) to the T-346A. Students used to fly around 80-90 live and 20-30 simulated hours and, while live training on the T-346 remains around 80 hours, simulation is now at the same figure. Lt Col Simone ‘Sossi’ Orlandini, one of the T-346 instructors at Lecce, explained to AFM: “That’s because some of the costly operational conversion training will come off the Eurofighter and onto the T-346 – all with the assistance of a new Leonardo Integrated Training System, which features a Ground-Based Training System (GBTS). Everyone working in the GBTS is connected with the T-346 live in the air, via the Live Virtual Constructive (LVC) and Embedded Tactical Training System (ETTS) network.” Leonardo believes the Italian Air Force could halve the 90 hours or so a new Eurofighter pilot spends on the operational conversion unit – the 4° Stormo in Grosseto. ‘Sossi’ continued: “We have changed from a world that is very fast but not very manoeuvrable, to a world that is highly dynamic. The progression to a more performance-based aircraft like the T-346 gives students the ability to handle the task much more quickly.” ‘Sossi’ explained in more detail the way the air force carries out training at Lecce: “The ETTS network allows the T-346 students to work with the radar, targeting pod and recce pod in many scenarios. This greatly improves
34 // August 2020 #389
their skills by the time they have left for the Eurofighter OCU.” The Aeronautica Militare has purchased 18 T-346As for Phase IV/LIFT while Leonardo is providing four to the International Flight Training School (IFTS) now being created at LecceGalatina. All 22 T-346s will transfer to Decimomannu next year to become a future ‘advanced training centre of excellence’. So far, Italian Air Force students are only trained by Italian military instructors at Lecce, but when the IFTS moves to Decimomannu it’s hoped that military instructors from the Italian Air Force and foreign air arms will work alongside ex-military, now-civilian instructors under Leonardo. CAE is set to become a partner within the IFTS, which has not yet secured a foreign customer.
Central Europe
Poland has acquired eight M-346 Bieliks and a second order for eight was placed in March 2018. Dęblin is home of the 4. Skrzydło Lotnictwa Szkolnego (4. SLSz, 4th Training Air Wing) and uses a similar integrated training system to that in Italy.
The Czech Air Force is currently looking to modernise its LIFT capability by phasing out the L-159 in this role and training pilots on the L-39NG. This is dependent on signature of the long-awaited contract for four aircraft between Aero Vodochody and the government-owned LOM Praha. The aircraft should be delivered in 2022, when LIFT will become the responsibility of LOM Praha’s Centrum Leteckého Výcviku (CLV, Aviation Training Centre) based at Pardubice, currently flying up to six L-39Cs. According to Jakub Hoda, Aero Vodochody’s head of sales: “The Czech Air Force has concluded the L-159 with its less capable avionics can be replaced by the L-39NG in that role. With modern synthetic training tools and the Tactical Training Simulation Centre at Pardubice we can produce a highly talented pilot who has no issues converting directly to the Gripen, which has been confirmed by Swedish instructors.” With the arrival of 14 F-16C/D Block 70s in 2023, Slovakia is now looking to replace its L-39ZAM/ L-39CM advanced jet trainers. Brigadier Lubomir Svoboda told AFM in August last year: “The
L-39s can last for a maximum of six years, but we have started pulling together our needs for a next-generation trainer as well as a budget. We want to look at all the options out there.” Slovakia has a requirement for up to eight new trainers and, on June 11, Aero Vodochody announced it had offered to train Slovak pilots at the Tactical Training Simulation Centre at Pardubice in the Czech Republic. Hungary is currently committed to sending its pilots to the NATO Flying Training in Canada (NFTC) programme until 2023. NFTC runs both basic (with CT-156 Harvard II) and advanced undergraduate training (CT-155 Hawk). CAE operates the NFTC programme out of 15 Wing at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and 4 Wing Cold Lake, Alberta. Elsewhere, Bulgaria is buying F-16s, so its L-39ZA will need to be replaced, and the Hellenic Air Force (HAF) is desperate to replace its veteran T-2E Buckeyes. In a clash of the training titans, Israel’s Elbit Systems and Canada’s CAE are fighting for the $1.6bn contract to support HAF flying training for 20 years. AFM
The Bulgarian Air Force is set to begin looking for a replacement for its ageing Albatros fleet – L-39ZA serial 147 is seen on the Bezmer flight line that also includes a pair of PC-9M turboprops. Bulgaria’s 12 remaining L-39ZAs were grounded in 2010 when their service life expired, but Aero Vodochody overhauled six and these began to be redelivered in 2013. Alexander Mladenov
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06/07/2020 12:52:16
French L
Flottille 34F
endangered species
T
he last WG.13 Lynx helicopters remaining in service with the Marine Nationale (French Navy) are all allocated to Flottille 34F stationed at Lanvéoc-Poulmic, on the Crozon peninsula, just south of Brest. In French service, these British-built rotorcraft have earned an enviable reputation for efficiency and reliability thanks to their tough airframe and strong turbines, their outstanding power and eye-watering agility. Alongside the Caïman, the Lynx still plays a central role providing robust anti-submarine warfare (ASW) capabilities to the Marine Nationale, but its days are now numbered. When introduced in 1978, the Lynx represented a huge improvement over the older Sikorsky HSS-1 and Aérospatiale Alouette III helicopters then in service with the Marine Nationale for ASW duties: it was fitted with a modern weapons system and was specifically designed to operate from pitching frigate and destroyer decks. Two variants of the Lynx were accepted into French service: 26 Lynx HAS2(FN)s
36 // August 2020 #389
powered by Gem 2 turboshafts, and 14 Lynx HAS4(FN)s powered by more powerful Gem 41-1 engines. At its peak, three units operated the type: Flottille 31F at Saint-Mandrier in southeast France, and Flottilles 34F and 35F both at Lanvéoc-Poulmic. Today, only Flottille 34F is still equipped with a fast-diminishing number of Lynxes, another example being in service with the Centre d’Expérimentations Pratiques de l’Aéronautique navale (CEPA, the French naval aviation operational evaluation centre) for various experiments. Flottille 34F is currently headed by Commander François Chaput, a very experienced pilot with more than 6,900 flying hours, including 2,200 in the Lynx. Chaput previously headed up Flottille 32F before it disbanded in 2016.
A wide range of missions
Detachments composed of one – and occasionally two – Lynx deploy on board French Navy antisubmarine frigates of the Georges Leygues
class to carry out a wide range of missions: offensive and defensive ASW using DUAV-4 dunking sonar, a dispenser for active and passive sonobuoys and Franco-Italian MU90 torpedoes beyond-the-horizon target designation for the Exocet missiles of their mothership or for the Rafale fighters of the Charles de Gaulle’s carrier air wing, the Lynx relying on its ORB31 radar for surface contact monitoring and on its Chlio forward-looking infrared (FLIR) for identification of ships at standoff distances maritime surveillance, naval force protection, navigation surveillance, embargo enforcement, anti-piracy missions and drug interdiction medical evacuation and search and rescue (SAR; with a maximum endurance of two hours) logistics support, carrying slung loads of up to 2,425lb (1,100kg) – although loads of up to 1,764 (800kg) are more usual special forces support work
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h Lynx
The French Navy has long been one of the main operators of the acclaimed Westland Lynx maritime helicopter. But it has recently been announced that the days of the faithful ‘big cat’ are now numbered. Henri-Pierre Grolleau reports from Lanvéoc-Poulmic, Brittany, home of Flottille 34F.
MU90 Impact torpedo
For the ASW mission, the Lynx can carry one or two MU90 Impact torpedoes depending on mission profile (the normal configuration includes one MU90 mounted under the pylon on the right-hand side). This modern weapon has been operational on the Lynx since April 2010. A number of modifications had to be implemented for the Lynx to become MU90capable: the electrical system was modified and the torpedo control unit altered so that aircrews could programme the weapon before firing. Depending on sea state, desired search pattern, selected initial torpedo depth and requested firing mode, pre-set data is transferred from the Lynx to the MU90 via the new torpedo control unit. The MU90 can be released either in forward flight or in the hover. The MU90 gives the Lynx the ability to hit double-hulled, acoustically coated, deep-diving, fast-evading submarines with an extremely high probability of kill (pk) thanks to its inherent
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Above: Lynx crew pose in front of their mount together with a pair of maintainers and soldiers from the Commando Kieffer, a dedicated maritime counter-terrorist unit that’s part of the Commandos Marine – the French Navy special operations forces. The Lynx is typically flown by a crew of three: two pilots and a sensor operator/winchman. Top: Lynx HAS2(FN) 265 (c/n 045) low over the waves near Flottille 34F’s home base of Lanvéoc-Poulmic. The French Navy acquired the Lynx in two variants: 26 Lynx HAS2(FN)s and 14 Lynx HAS4(FN)s. Now just five examples remain in use with the squadron. All photos Henri-Pierre Grolleau
#389 August 2020 // 37
flights had each logged around 250 flight hours over the course of the year while the pilots of the flottille headquarters had each accumulated around 180 hours. We were therefore within the French Navy requirements of 220 flying hours per pilot on average. Aircrews who took part in the carrier strike group deployment in the Indian Ocean easily exceeded that requirement as they clocked around 300 hours each in 2019.”
Limited upgrade
An example of the Lynx HAS4(FN), 807 (c/n 276) touches down on the flight deck of the French Navy frigate ‘Latouche-Tréville’, which is shore-based in Brest. Once the Lynx is retired, this warship will have to operate either the Dauphin or Panther, since it’s too small to accommodate the Caïman.
speed, its remarkably accurate seeker and its resistance to jamming and decoying. The operational credibility of the old Mk46 torpedo is now said to be questionable against the latest generation of submarines, which are quieter, faster and capable of diving to greater depths than their predecessors. Recent diesel/electric submarines are often fitted with air-independent propulsion that allows non-nuclear boats to operate without access to oxygen, giving them considerable submerged endurance and an excellent mobility to avoid detection and defeat attacks. With the MU90 and the latest generation of active low-frequency dunking and ship-mounted sonars, the Marine Nationale has at its disposal the required tools to counter the enhanced operational flexibility of diesel/electric submarines. The MU90 has also been adopted by the navy for its surface combatants and for its Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft, which can carry up to six (see France’s ‘flying frigate’, July 2019, p72-76). The Lynx can be equipped with a pintlemounted 7.62mm calibre ANF-1 machine gun
on the right-hand side of the main cabin to protect its mothership against asymmetric threats in contested waters. Alternatively, a sniper armed with a McMillan or a PGM Hécate 12.7mm high-power precision rifle can be carried for drug interdiction, with the rifle securely fitted to a modular mounting for added stability. For self-defence, the helicopters are fitted with decoy dispensers for flares to defeat infrared-guided surface-to-air missiles.
Highly trained aircrews
Lynx aircrews are trained to extremely high standards and are capable of performing ASW missions from the pitching deck of a small frigate, in all weathers, day and night. At the time of writing, Flottille 34F had five Lynxes flown by ten pilots, enough to form five crews, as the French Lynx is flown by a crew of three, comprising two pilots and a sensor operator/winchman. This favourable airframe/aircrew ratio within 34F allows pilots to log a very high number of flying hours. Commander Chaput explained: “By the end of 2019, crews attached to the deployed
To maintain the type’s operational capability, ensure its military relevance in the short term and guarantee full compliance with the latest International Civil Aviation Organization (IACO) rules and regulations, seven Lynxes underwent a limited upgrade programme, the last before the type is withdrawn from use. Lieutenant Commander Christophe (surnames have been withheld on request), the head of 34F operations, explained: “In 2017, the Lynx was, at last, fitted with an HF radio and with the associated antenna on the left-hand side of the fuselage. This allows us to talk to ships at very long distances. A new UHF radio with 8.33KHz spacing has been adopted to support the Link 11 data link functionalities and to communicate with civilian air traffic control agencies. Similarly, we are now equipped with a Mode C/S/4 transponder. The sensor operator in the main cabin now has at his disposal a modern workstation with a display that shows all data from the AIS [Automatic Identification System], the Link 11 data link and the Chlio FLIR turret.” The AIS is used to locate and identify ships at sea or at anchor, allowing maritime authorities to accurately track and monitor shipping. Data is automatically broadcast every 20 seconds (vessel identity code, position, speed, course, true heading) and every six minutes (radio callsign, name, type of ship and load, dimensions including draught, type of positioning system and its location on board the vessel, destination and estimated time of arrival).
Still up-to-date
According to all the pilots AFM interviewed, the Lynx remains a very potent rotorcraft in terms of performance and power. Commander Chaput said: “The Lynx is fast, agile and reactive thanks
Below: The rugged Brittany coast provides plenty of hiding places for the diminutive Lynx. Flottille 34F has been based at Lanvéoc-Poulmic naval air station since January 1975 and received its first Lynx in October 1979.
38 // August 2020 #389
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Flottille 34F and the Lynx Flottille 34F was created at Saint-Raphaël in September 1974 to operate the dedicated antisubmarine variant of the Alouette III equipped with a magnetic anomaly detector and a Mk44 torpedo. In January 1975, the unit transferred to LanvéocPoulmic where it has remained until today. Thanks to the Alouette III, Flottille 34F gained valuable experience in the ASW role. This was to prove decisive in helping the unit transition to the Lynx – a much more capable and complex platform. In October 1979, the first Lynx was delivered to Flottille 34F which, by the end of the year, was equipped with six Alouette IIIs and five Lynxes. In July 1980, the squadron relinquished its final Alouette. In 1990, Flottille 34F had 15 Lynxes at its disposal for its seven detachments. After the end of the Cold War and the ensuing cuts, the number of flights soon started to diminish, with only five remaining two years later. A progressive switch from pure ASW to multi-role missions was initiated. While Flottille 34F aircrews had focused on convoy protection against Soviet submarines during the Cold War, they progressively increased the scope of missions to include search and rescue, maritime surveillance, naval force protection, pollution control and antipiracy, as part of a wider maritime security concept. Above left: Pilot and sensor operator look on as a Mk46 lightweight ASW torpedo is released from Lynx HAS4(FN) 807 (c/n 276). This older, US-made weapon is now considered less than effective against the most modern submarine threats, which are quieter, faster and deeper-diving than their predecessors. Left: After being delivered by the fast-roping method, Commando Kieffer maritime counter-terrorist forces secure the landing zone during an exercise. In recent years, the Lynx has been increasingly used for naval force protection, embargo enforcement, anti-piracy and drug interdiction missions, which can involve the movement of soldiers.
to its rigid rotor head, with a cruising speed of anything between 120 and 150 knots depending on its configuration. Over recent years, French Lynxes have suffered from the fact that their tail rotor does not turn in the correct direction. When Westland offered us to switch from older metallic blades to the newer BERP [British Experimental Rotor Programme] composite main rotor blades that provide increased performance and reduced maintenance requirements, the navy only purchased one part of the kit for budgetary reasons: our Lynxes have therefore been fitted with the BERPs, but not with the improved reverse-direction tail rotor that turns in the opposite direction from the one we have. As a result, the aircraft sometimes proves difficult to control in yaw. The problem is exacerbated by the fact that the Lynx only has a small vertical tail – the Panther and the Dauphin are fitted with a large vertical stabiliser effective enough to aerodynamically oppose the torque generated by the main rotor, but this is not the case on the Lynx. Moreover, the Lynx is not equipped with modern aids for the pilots: while the Caïman is extremely comfortable and easy to fly due to its advanced autopilot with countless modes,
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nearly everything has to be done manually on the Lynx as its autopilot is fairly basic. To give you a better idea, I consider the gap between the Lynx and the Caïman is similar to that between the Caravelle and the Airbus A320.”
ASW training
Flottille 34F aircrews devote around 30% of their flight hours allocation to ASW training. To hunt submarines, French Lynx helicopters are fitted with the DUAV-4, a rather old but still effective dipping sonar. Its range is not very long compared with the latest airborne sonars, but it nevertheless remains excellent at determining speeds and headings and its ability to classify targets is outstanding thanks to good signal processing. This is a crucial advantage to confirm the presence of a submarine prior to engaging it with a torpedo. Positive identification of underwater targets remains a challenging task due to the complexity of the marine environment – for example, a whale can produce a sonar return very close to that of a submarine under certain circumstances. Lynx aircrews train in realistic conditions during combined anti-submarine exercises
(CASEX). While on board a frigate, the Lynx can be maintained at five-minute readiness, with the crew strapped in the helicopter, or at 15-minute readiness, with the Lynx captain staying in the warship’s operations room to keep an eye on the evolving tactical situation and the co-pilot and sonar operator resting in the ready room. When required, the Lynx can then take off to investigate a potential submarine contact and confirm its heading, speed, depth and, if feasible, identity. When operating with the sonar in the water, the Lynx will typically hover at anything between 60 and 80ft (18-24m) above the surface, depending on weight and sea state. To facilitate station keeping, the pilot can select a specific autopilot mode that will precisely maintain the hover above the cable and the sonar dome. Crews first lower the sonar transducer to its maximum operating depth in order to obtain a bathymetric profile of the sea. This allows them to accurately predict sound propagation speeds relative to depth and to know where the ‘hostile’ submarine is more likely to hide. Against a real submarine during a CASEX, an expendable ESUS Mk84 underwater sound
#389 August 2020 // 39
Flottille 34F Right: The view from the flight deck as a Lynx approaches its home station. Despite its age, the maritime Lynx is still prized as a ‘hot ship’ by its crews – combining plenty of power with superb agility. Below: The new-generation MU90 Impact torpedo is a Franco-Italian design that became operational on the Lynx in 2010. The weapon has been tailored to defeat double-hulled, acoustically coated, deep-diving, fast-evading submarines and is also carried by the Atlantique 2 maritime patrol aircraft.
signal system is manually dropped from the main cabin to inform the crew of the submarine that has been ‘attacked’ by the Lynx. This system generates a coded acoustic signal easily intercepted by the submarine’s listening devices.
Maintaining the Lynx
No fewer than 67 personnel are dedicated to the maintenance of Flottille 34F’s remaining five Lynx rotorcraft. Lieutenant Cécile, the squadron’s senior engineering officer, explained: “A flight deploying on board a frigate with a single Lynx is usually supported by ten specialists: a detachment chief, an engineer dual-qualified as a rescue diver and two teams of four maintainers.” Lynx maintenance is split into 25, 50, 150, 200 and 400-hour inspections, with additional weekly and yearly checks, all carried out at Lanvéoc-Poulmic at flottille or naval air station levels. At intervals of three and nine years, depot-level inspections are undertaken at Cuers-Pierrefeu, in the south of France. At the time of writing, the last nine-year check, on Lynx 267, was about to conclude, and just one three-year check remained to be performed before the closure of the Lynx maintenance facility at Cuers-Pierrefeu. The Lynx has proved to be a very resilient aircraft, but the type is now ageing, and some recurring technical problems have surfaced over the last few years. “The Lynx easily handles operations at sea and its airframe is very good at resisting corrosion,” Lieutenant Cécile continued. “Our main problem is that Leonardo [previously AgustaWestland, and before that Westland] has discontinued the production of some of the Lynx components and finding spares has become a real challenge. For instance, we currently have difficulties sourcing undercarriages. Avionics are old, and we suffer from a high number of electrical connector issues. To increase availability, our helicopters standing ready
for SAR missions are parked in a humiditycontrolled hangar with positive results. We are confident the fleet will easily soldier on until mid2020 because, in the course of the last depotlevel inspections, modifications were made to ensure that the airframes could clock 8,000 flying hours instead of the initially approved 7,000.” For the French Navy, the Lynx is not unlike the Alouette III – an even more geriatric rotorcraft. Lieutenant Arnaud, Flottille 34F’s junior engineering officer, added: “We have decades of experience and we can solve all the airframe problems that cyclically appear on the airframe. The Lynx is a very powerful helicopter, with the main rotor inflicting a lot of torque on the fuselage while the tail rotor also creates considerable lateral forces on the tail boom. As a result, we regularly discover cracks on the frame at the junction between the forward fuselage and the tail boom. Working within Flottille 34F proves very instructive and young maintainers straight from engineering school are still being posted here so that they gain invaluable experience in a frontline unit.”
Retirement brought forward
Like armed forces all around the world, the Marine Nationale regularly conducts studies to reassess its needs in order to balance financial resources and operational capabilities. Hard choices sometimes have to be made, and the Lynx will pay the price, with its retirement date brought forward from 2022 to 2020. The Flottille 34F detachment at Hyères, in the south of France, was closed in 2018 when the navy decommissioned the frigate Jean de Vienne. The Lynx’s primary purpose is to provide airborne ASW capabilities to the F70 frigates (Georges Leygues class), two of which remain in service with the French Navy: La MottePiquet (D645) and Latouche-Tréville (D646), both shore-based in Brest, in Brittany. The first
of these vessels will be withdrawn from use in September, but will be equipped with a Lynx until the end. The second warship will have to operate another type (Dauphin or Panther) because her platform and hangar are too tight for the Caïman. This will lead to a sharp decline in her ASW capabilities. Latouche-Tréville is expected to be decommissioned in 2022. By then, all seven F70 frigates will have been replaced by six Aquitaineclass Frégates Multi-Missions (FREMMs). The Lynx is a remarkable rotorcraft that has served the Marine Nationale faithfully. The type will officially cease operational flying on August 3 and nearly all Flottille 34F personnel already know which unit they will be posted to next. The unit will temporarily disband on September 3, only to be recreated in January to operate the leased AS365N3 Dauphin IIs of the future Flotte Intérimaire d’Hélicoptères (Interim Helicopter Fleet). To fill the gap between the Lynx and the Alouette III on one hand, and the future H160M Guépard on the other, the navy decided to field an interim fleet of helicopters composed of leased Dauphins and civilian H160 helicopters to gain experience on the type until the delivery of the first H160M to the Marine Nationale in 2028. These H160s will supplant the NH90s used for SAR missions from Cherbourg and Lanvéoc-Poulmic, allowing the Caïmans to focus on combat missions. Twelve AS365N3s will be leased from Héli-Union and spread between Lanvéoc-Poulmic and Hyères in continental France, and the French overseas territories of Martinique, Réunion, Tahiti and New Caledonia, to replace the Lynx and Alouette III. They could all be in service by 2023. These helicopters will be cleared to operate from frigates and, as such, some could find themselves embarking on board the LatoucheTréville. The last Lynx mission will be carried out on September 3, after which additional sorties will deliver Lynxes to various museums. AFM
Outside Flottille 34F, the only other French Navy Lynx operator is the Centre d’Expérimentations Pratiques de l’Aéronautique naval that uses the helicopter for trials work. Here, Lynx HAS2(FN) 273 (c/n 066) shares the ramp with a French Navy Caïman and Falcon 10MER, plus an MV-22B from Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 263 (VMM-263).
40 // August 2020 #389
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Search & Sahel air war Part Two
from the sky
M
irage 2000D and Mirage F1CR jets of the Armée de l’Air (French Air Force) were already operating in the Sahel region – in Chad – when France began its war against the jihadists under Opération Serval in January 2013. In the following months, all the fighters settled at Niamey air base in Niger, where Harfang unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) had started to arrive from the beginning of the operation. Today’s situation is the same, but different. Opération Barkhane – the ongoing antiinsurgent operation in the area – was launched on August 1, 2014, superseding Opération Serval. A year earlier, the Mirage F1CR was retired from African operations. Currently, the Mirage 2000D retains the same weapons (two GBU-12 or GBU-49 precision-guided bombs) and the same three targeting pods – the venerable optical ATLIS developed in the 1970s, the infrared PDLCT that was updated in the 1990s and the infrared Damocles, originally devised for the United Arab Emirates Mirage 2000-9.
Reaper revolution
A big change – perhaps even a revolution – came with the arrival of the highly capable MQ-9 Reaper UAV. The French defence ministry ordered four such systems in April 2013, via the regular US Foreign Military Sales procedure, and the first Block 1 was delivered eight months later. A second Block 1 system (each includes three UAVs and two Ground Control Stations, known in France as ‘cockpits’) was delivered soon afterwards. This January, France received its third system, a Block 5. The fourth is expected to follow as soon as COVID-19 will allow. Currently, only three Block 1 Reaper aircraft are working in Niamey, operated by six teams of four airmen. The four crew comprise a pilot who also deals with the synthetic aperture radar
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(SAR), a sensor operator who controls the MTS-B (Multispectral Targeting System) optronic turret, a data analyst and a tactical co-ordinator (an intelligence officer). Sensor operators are either NCOs or officers – the latter being pilots or weapons systems operators (WSO) coming from the Mirage 2000D community – while the data analyst is always an NCO. The airman piloting the Reaper is a former pilot with fighter, transport or helicopter experience. In the meantime, the Armée de l’Air has also started training new Reaper pilots ab initio. Both Mirage and Reaper teams spend two months in Niamey before going home. Personnel can expect to deploy to the area a maximum of three times a year. The Mirage 2000D and Reaper are the primary tools for waging war on the jihadists. The next most important offensive options are provided by special operations forces (SOF) teams and the French Army’s Tigre attack helicopter. In the first four months of this year, around 120 500lb (227kg) Mk82 bombs (fitted with either GBU-12 or GBU-49 guidance kits) were launched by the fighters and UAVs. The Reaper launched 40% of the weapons (50 GBU-12s) during this period. The new drone has rapidly carved a niche for itself as a strike asset. This capability was only attained last December – adding weapons to the Reaper had been one of the first decisions taken by the then new defence minister Florence Parly in June 2017. With terror attacks escalating in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, French President Emmanuel Macron decided in November 2019 to intensify the hunt for the enemy. The jihadists have a ghost-like presence in the region; sometimes,
the targeting window only lasts a few minutes. French military tasking authorities in N’Djamena (home to the Opération Barkhane HQ) and Ouagadougou (where the SOF HQ has been located since 2010) typically have only a short time to make a decision on whether to engage a target on the ground. UAVs, plus intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft and fighters have been working on developing a co-operative engagement capability (CEC) for some years, but new tactics and air-land integration management was improved in the last months of 2019. Operational controllers and taskers have now refined their way of working. This is an important point, because the air war is co-ordinated from the city of Lyon in France, thousands of miles from the Sahel countries. A daily air tasking order (ATO) is also produced in France and received directly in Niamey and N’Djamena.
Modus operandi
Between one and three Mirage 2000 combat air patrols (CAPs, of two aircraft each) can be flown. In contrast, the Reaper flies alone, and the Escadron de Drones 1/33 ‘Belfort’ can fly two missions simultaneously, since it has two Ground Control Stations. The MQ-9 carries two to four GBU-12s – or can fly without any weapons to increase mission ‘playtime’ as an ISR asset. Mirage CAPs and Reapers can also combine their strengths. The Reaper offers much greater
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& destroy French fighters have been active in the skies over Africa for many years. In the second part of his report from the Sahel, Jean-Marc Tanguy investigates the work of the Armée de l’Air’s strike force at Niamey in Niger.
Above: A Mirage 2000D can fly for up to two hours on a combination of internal and external fuel (drop tanks), before needing to top up from a tanker. Mirage 2000D 660 ‘3-JF’ carries the SPA 48 cockerel insignia of Escadron de Transformation 4/3 ‘Argonne’, the Mirage 2000D operational conversion unit. Left: The French Air Force Reaper often flies with two GBU-12 laser-guided bombs, but can also operate with four if required. The Hellfire missile will be qualified on the drone in a few months, followed by the GBU-49 before the end of the year. Below: A very rare Damocles targeting pod. The air force doesn’t have enough of these advanced pods and most are reserved for the Rafale fleet. All photos Jean-Marc Tanguy
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#389 August 2020 // 43
Sahel air war Part Two
1
time on station and the team on the ground only have to be replaced by new crews every six hours; it can also co-ordinate other assets as an on-scene commander. Meanwhile, a Mirage CAP has to refuel at least three or four times during a long-duration sortie. The Reaper has excellent sensors – especially the MTS-B optronic turret – compared to the targeting pods carried by the Mirages. While the Mirages fly with two human brains inside, the Reaper has four, but they are all on the ground. UAVs and fighters provide a comprehensive view of the situation below with the help of Joint
Terminal Attack Controllers (JTACs) belonging to French Army artillery regiments, and from the Commandos Parachutistes de l’Air (CPA, a French equivalent to the RAF Regiment, now integrated within the French SOF command). They exchange tactical information using a ‘nineline’ – a formatted document that provides the primary information to find friends and foes. The CPA also provides digitally aided close air support (DACAS) using compact computers and radios to exchange information quickly with the fighters. Inside the Mirage 2000D, the weapons systems operator in the back seat uses
French search and destroy assets (excluding SOF) Base/assets
No. of a/c Crews Operating units
Weapons
Niamey, Niger 7
9
3e Escadre de Chasse
2 GBU-12/49
Reaper Block 1 3
6
Escadron de Drones 1/33 ‘Belfort’
2-4 GBU-12
ATL 2
1
1
Flottilles 21F/23F
2-4 GBU-12/51/58
Gabriel
0-1
1
Escadron Électronique Aéroporté 1/54 ‘Dunkerque’
none
2
3
31ème Escadre Aérienne de Ravitaillement et de Transport Stratégiques
none
Tigre
5
5
5e/1er Régiments d’Hélicoptères de Combat
30mm gun, unguided rockets, Hellfire
Gazelle
4
4
1er/3e/5e Régiments d’Hélicoptères de Combat
1-2 HOT missiles, sniper, M134 Minigun*
6
CAE Aviation/Direction du Renseignement Militaire/ * For SOF-operated Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure aircraft only.
Mirage 2000D
C-135FR Gao, Mali
In all Sahel countries ISR aircraft
6+
2
tactical software and databases to confirm the target is not included on a ‘no-strike’ list and to ensure that the chosen ammunition won’t also harm civilians or allied troops. The same kinds of tools are also available to the Reaper team.
Troops in contact
Different types of air missions can be managed. For example, a quick reaction alert (QRA) Mirage 2000D can be scrambled if a troops-incontact (TIC) situation is declared somewhere in the region. One such mission occurred on October 4, 2017, when an American SOFled patrol was ambushed in Tongo Tongo, Niger. Five Nigeriens and four US soldiers were killed and eight Nigeriens and two US soldiers including the team commander were wounded. It took a long time to transmit the alert because the patrol was under heavy fire and since few of the relevant authorities had been informed of the US activity, allegedly. Eventually, a Nigerien Gazelle was scrambled, along with two French Mirage 2000s – one single-seat Mirage 2000C and a two-seat 2000D – all taking off from Niamey. A French ISR aircraft was also airborne and was tasked to provide intelligence support from the air to try to understand what was happening below. No radio contact was possible with the forces on the ground, so the Mirage 2000D was only able to proceed with ‘shows of force’ – it flew four in total. In the meantime, helicopters from Gao
4 44 // August 2020 #389
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were also scrambled to bring in reinforcements and begin the medical evacuation (medevac) of the injured US and Nigerien soldiers. Most Mirage missions start with a preplanned task, such as escorting a convoy, or providing ISR to a JTAC working in the field. Training local JTACs is also a top priority for Barkhane and consumes many flight hours. The Malian JTACs are designated as Guetteur Aérien Tactique Avancé (GATA), essentially a specialist for emergency close air support. The GATA will report the locations of friendly and enemy forces, using coloured smoke or a piece of glass to indicate their own position. GATAs have been instructed in the armies of Mali and Burkina Faso in the last five years and have seen intensive combat in the last few months. Mirage 2000Ds are often re-tasked in flight to support urgent needs: typically, their ATO will call for a convoy escort and, once airborne, the jets will then be requested to help an allied base under attack. The Mirage 2000D is also involved in SOF support. SOF often operate in small teams and the speed advantage of the Mirage can deliver a quick response. A SOF team can call for support if attacked by jihadists or to destroy a jihadist group with more fighters than it can take on alone. The Reaper concept of operations is mainly focused on tactical ‘boxes’ – their ATOs tend to be focussed on high-value targets. The drones may be tasked to fly over a suspect vehicle or
3
a particular area. In a short time, a first clue can lead to new information being uncovered, as the Reaper teams help build up a picture of the situation on the ground. Now, armed with GBU12s, the French Reapers can destroy targets themselves. In the months to come, the UAV will also add the GBU-49 and Hellfire missile to its armoury. The Hellfire is expected to arrive first, followed by GBU-49 at the end of the year, but delays have occurred due to COVID-19. The MTS-B can also designate targets for other air assets armed with laser-guided weapons. All the Reaper engagements can be co-ordinated from Niamey, Cognac (the Reaper base in France) and Paris, where the SOF command is based.
Atlantique in the Sahel
Another asset that can also deliver kinetic effects is the unique Atlantique 2 operated by the Marine Nationale (French Navy). This aircraft has been deployed in Niger since 2010. Originally, it was used as an intelligence asset, in order to find French hostages. One was involved in an attempt to release two hostages in January 2011. The ATL 2 found their location, but sadly two young hostages were killed during the rescue operation led by French SOF and three Cougar helicopters. Subsequently, three ATL 2s were modified with an MX-20 optronic turret under the rear section of the fuselage. All were given the ability to fly with up to four GBUs, comprising the GBU-12,
-51 and -58. Some bombs were dropped by the ATL 2 over Iraq, but it’s not known if this has occurred in Africa. Each ATL 2 flies with 14 people on board, some of them watching outside with goggles and digital cameras. The ATL 2 has a satellite communications (SATCOM) system, so it can send relevant images one by one – the transmission rate isn’t enough to transmit live imagery. Each ATL 2 can also fly with an airborne JTAC to help co-ordinate an allied composite air operation. The Reaper also regularly assumes this on-scene commander (OSC) capability, due to its ability to fly longer than the jets, without having to come off station in order to refuel.
Death of an AQMI leader
Last June 3, SOF and a single Reaper combined to precisely locate Abdelmalek Droukdel, leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI). The terrorist had been followed over at least the previous 48 hours by ISR assets apparently belonging to United States Africa Command. The Reaper used a GBU-12 to hit the 4x4 vehicle carrying the AQMI leader together with his propaganda chiefs and three other militants. Only one survived the subsequent hour-long battle with SOF commandos and helicopters. At least two Cougars, one Tigre and two Gazelles (one with an M134 Minigun and another with a sniper) were involved in the operation. It was a major victory for France after AFM years of battling jihadists in the Sahel.
5 1: With a reduced operational requirement to counter so-called Islamic State in the Middle East, the French Navy is able to provide a single ATL 2 maritime patrol aircraft to support African missions. 2: Using full afterburner from its SNECMA M53-P2 engine, Mirage 2000D 660 ‘3-JF’ takes off from Niamey. Mirage crew take special measures to avoid potential hostile fire from the ground. 3: A total of 83 GBU-12 laser-guided bombs were launched over the Sahel region in 2019, whereas at least 120 have already been dropped in 2020, 70 of them by Mirage 2000Ds. 4: The mechanic completes final checks on Mirage 2000D 660 ‘3-JF’ after it leaves its ‘astro arch’ aircraft shelter at Niamey. 5: The Mirage 2000D is operated by a pilot (left) and a weapons systems operator in the rear. All unit patches, names and other identifiers are removed from the flying suits for combat operations.
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#389 August 2020 // 45
NEWS
Special
Royal Squadron rescuer Thomas Newdick discovers how the RAF adapted one of its BAe 146 C3 transports for medical use in record time.
Above: Flight crew in the cockpit of BAe 146 C3 ZE708. In the co-pilot’s seat is No 32 (TR) Squadron commander, Wg Cdr Delia Chadwick. In response to coronavirus, the squadron has been divided into two teams to help reduce the chance of infection. Thomas Newdick Right: Thomas Newdick
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R
AF BAe 146 C3 ZE708 – one of two such transport aircraft operated by No 32 (The Royal) Squadron at RAF Northolt in west London – has been adapted to carry medical patients in record time and at no cost, as part of the UK Armed Forces response to the coronavirus pandemic. Work to modify ZE708 to transport critically ill patients was completed in just two months. The squadron’s pair of BAe 146 C3s was acquired for the RAF’s Command Support Air Transport (CSAT) fleet under an Urgent Operational Requirement (UOR). In December 2011 the Ministry of Defence issued a tender, with the potential value of £6m, covering procurement of two
BAe 146-200 Quick Change aircraft to fulfil the UOR. A £3.91m contract for the two civilian-specification aircraft (built in 1991 and 1993) was awarded to TNT Airways in February 2012. Subsequently, in June 2012, BAE Systems was awarded a £15.5m contract to convert the aircraft to military specification. On February 7, 2013 one of the aircraft performed its first flight following conversion at BAE Systems’ Hawarden facility and the first aircraft was delivered to RAF Northolt on February 28, 2013, followed by the second on March 15 that year. Both aircraft were declared as having been officially released to service in mid-April 2013 and were then used to assist with the drawdown of UK
forces in Afghanistan. The CSAT fleet also operates two VIP-configured BAe 146 CC2s and a single AW109SP GrandNew. While only ZE708 has been modified for its new role, the second C3, serial ZE707, can be adapted using the same roll-on/roll-off kit.
Joint effort
Wg Cdr Jo Bland, the Officer Commanding Tactical Medical Wing (TMW) described conversion of the aircraft as “an amazing achievement, bringing together 32 (TR) Squadron’s residual capacity, Tactical Medical Wing’s aeromedical evacuation capability and the design, production and engineering skills of Joint Air Delivery Test & Evaluation Unit [JADTEU].” Wg Cdr Bland pointed to
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the Astra programme that aims to encourage innovation across the RAF. “This project embodies the very spirit of Astra; using existing military aircraft in a dual-hatted role and optimising use of key Defence assets. TMW have never delivered aeromed on the BAe 146 in this manner before and it has been achieved at zero cost and in record time by smart use of pre-existing, available assets.” Personnel from TMW and No 32 (TR) Squadron only began to look at the options for using the BAe 146 for aeromed missions on April 1 before devising a plan to add stretcher stanchions from the Voyager affixed to pallet flooring inside the aircraft. The engineering task was passed to JADTEU at RAF Brize Norton who quickly designed and produced a cleared and serviceable solution. Within a fortnight the adaptation was ready for prototype trials which determined the modifications were suitable for all types of aeromed, including use by the Critical Care Air Support Team. Following some crew training, the BAe 146 was declared available in its new role around two months after the initial request. Lt Col Sam Allinson, JADTEU Commanding Officer said: “It came as no surprise to me that the JADTEU team rose to this challenge so professionally; they are a superb team of experts drawn from across the military and Civil Service.
The stretcher patient is generally unloaded from the aircraft using an ambulift – a vehicle equipped with a flat platform on a scissor-lift that ensures a higher degree of comfort during embarkation/disembarkation. From there, they will be moved to an ambulance.
Our core business is the conduct of operational trials and evaluation for the delivery of personnel, equipment and materiel by air, but it was particularly gratifying in this instance to be able to design, test and manufacture a solution so quickly in support of Defence’s medical transportation capability.” Wg Cdr Delia Chadwick, Officer Commanding No 32 (TR) Squadron said: “This project is an exemplar of what Defence can achieve in a short space of time when the operational need exists. It has required close collaboration and co-ordination, not only between SMEs from my team on 32 (TR) Squadron, JADTEU and TMW, but a number of other key
Defence stakeholders.” These included the Queen’s Colour Squadron, Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the release to service authority (RTSA), and industry partners BAE Systems and Serco. Wg Cdr Chadwick – a former RAF Voyager flight commander who had only been on her current squadron for around two months – continued: “Development of the CSAT BAe 146 capability has added further breadth to what the Air Mobility Force can offer to Defence and will enable more efficient use of a limited pool of assets as a result.”
Niche aeromed asset
The RAF already possesses a significant aeromed capability. The Atlas, Hercules,
Globemaster III and Voyager are all able to transport patients and medical personnel, as are Puma and Chinook helicopters. However, the addition of the BAe 146 allows greater flexibility, as Wg Cdr Bland explained: “The advantage of the BAe 146 is that it can land at airports where Voyager can’t, due to its smaller size and footprint. It suits our purposes brilliantly for short hops which can be completed at less cost and with less impact on the environment.” And while the BAe 146 can only carry a single critical stretcher patient, it offers medical staff much more cabin room than a helicopter, providing all-round access, while relieving the demand on bigger fixed-wing transports. At the time of
AFM’s visit to Brize Norton on June 16, ZE708 was yet to be used to transport a stretcher patient but had been used for trials – including at East Midlands Airport – and had completed movements of ‘walking wounded’. While there’s clearly an aspiration to employ the aeromed BAe 146 beyond the current COVID-19 crisis, the future of the type is otherwise uncertain. In March 2018 BAE Systems was awarded a four-year, £42m contract from the MOD to support the fleet of four BAe 146 aircraft. Plans to dispose of these aircraft emerged during the Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) trade fair in London last September, when a brochure distributed by the UK Government’s Defence Equipment Sales Authority (DESA) offered them for sale. Earlier this year the government confirmed it was looking at possible replacements. In a January 16 written response to a question in parliament, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence Procurement, James Heappey, stated: “The current fleet of four BAe 146 aircraft is planned to be retired from service on March 31, 2022. Replacements are currently under consideration as part of normal capability planning.” The parliamentary reply given by Heappey gives no clue as to what options are being considered for the replacement. AFM
Above: A patient will normally be accompanied by a five-person medical team. This would usually comprise a consultant anaesthetist, two critical care nurses, an RAF medic/equipment expert and a medical technician familiar with civilian equipment. Left: The RAF’s two BAe 146 C3s were procured to support the drawdown of Operation Herrick in Afghanistan. Prior to the COVID-19 crisis they were mainly being used to transport civil servants around Europe as part of Brexit negotiations. All photos Crown Copyright unless stated
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#389 August 2020 // 47
Long-Range Aviation
strategic Russia’s
Together with intercontinental ballistic missiles based on land and aboard submarines, strategic bombers form part of the nuclear triad. For Russia, they comprise the most important component of the air force. In the first of a two-part analysis, Piotr Butowski assesses the potential of Russia’s long-range bomber fleet.
I
n March and April, Russian Tu-95MS Bear-H and Tu-160 Blackjack strategic bombers (as well as naval Tu-142 Bear-F and Bear-J aircraft) performed an extensive series of long-distance flights. Flying in pairs, these ‘heavies’ visited the Atlantic – venturing south as far as the coast of Spain – and the Pacific, approaching Alaska and Japan. Russia considers its nuclear deterrent as a single guarantor of security. In the opinion of many Russians, without nuclear weapons the country would be immediately attacked by NATO, which would take away its vital oil and gas reserves. The task of strategic aviation in the event of a conflict is to attack the most important targets deep in the enemy’s territory by means of nuclear or conventional cruise missiles.
Distant patrolling
In peacetime, Russia uses its strategic bombers as a power-projection tool. Patrolling remote waters – the scenario with which we began
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this article – is not unusual and was routine during the Cold War. Immediately after the collapse of the USSR, the intensity of such missions dropped significantly; Russia simply had neither the aircraft nor the money. In 1991, the Soviet Union operated 19 Tu-160 and 86 Tu-95MS strategic bombers (as well as a number of older Tu-95 versions, which were soon scrapped). But their disposition was very problematic. All 19 Tu-160 and 24 Tu-95MS aircraft were stationed at Pryluky and Uzin air bases in Ukraine; another 40 Tu-95MS bombers were at Semipalatinsk in Kazakhstan. Only 22 Tu-95MS bombers remained in Russia after the collapse of the USSR – at Mozdok air base in Northern Ossetia, where the volatile local situation was also cause for concern. In subsequent years, Russia gradually rebuilt its strategic aircraft fleet. Production of the Tu-95MS at the plant in Samara and the Tu-160 at the facility in Kazan continued, but the budget was shrinking. In May 1992, production of the Tu-95MS ended and all efforts were concentrated on the Tu-160. In 1992-95, the
Kazan plant produced six Tu-160s, which were then allocated to the 121st Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment (121 TBAP) at Engels. Then the production rate slowed down considerably, and the next Tu-160s were only completed in 1999 (8-02, the second aircraft of the eighth production series), 2006 (8-03) and 2017 (8-04). A quicker method of acquiring aircraft was to buy them back from Kazakhstan and Ukraine. With regards to Kazakhstan, it was straightforward: in 1993-94, all 40 Kazakh Tu-95MS bombers were transferred to Ukrainka (Seryshevo) in the far east of Russia; in return, Kazakhstan received tactical aircraft from Russia. The agreement with Ukraine proved to be much more problematic. Several rounds of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations took place, in which the bone of contention was money. Finally, in April 1998, when negotiations failed, Ukraine decided to scrap these aircraft. On January 14, 1999, the first Tu-160 was symbolically quartered at Pryluky. The situation changed in April 1999, when the influence of NATO’s bombing campaign
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c warriors Part one
Above: A Tu-95MS approaches the tanker. Note the external pylons here carrying a reduced load of cruise missiles. The four underwing hardpoints can each take a pair of new-generation nuclear Kh-102 or conventional Kh-101 cruise missiles on AKU-5M launchers. These weapons can’t be accommodated internally, as they are too big for the existing bomb bay. Evgeniy Kazennov Inset: Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash has served as chief of Russia’s Long-Range Aviation since September 2016. Piotr Butowski Top: Nightshift: Tu-22M3 ‘26 Red’/RF-94143 warms up its engines before taking off for a nocturnal sortie. This example – understood to have undergone the SVP-24-22 avionics upgrade for more accurate navigation and freefall bombing – was reportedly scrapped last year. All photos Artyom Anikeev unless stated
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#389 August 2020 // 49
Long-Range Aviation
1
in Yugoslavia led to Russia resuming talks with Ukraine. At a meeting in Yalta on October 6, 1999, Ukraine agreed to hand over to Russia the eight Tu-160s in the best technical condition, as well as three Tu-95MS bombers (the only three Bears in Ukraine that had the modern Sprut missile initialisation and launch system), plus 575 Kh-55SM cruise missiles, in exchange for US$285m deducted from Ukraine’s Russian gas debt. On November 5, 1999, the first two ex-Ukrainian bombers were officially welcomed at Engels. The purchase of eight Blackjacks from Ukraine completely changed the status of the Tu-160 in the Russian Air Force. Six bombers were only capable of performing propaganda functions, but with 14 aircraft, Russia could rethink their operational use and further development. Russian strategic aviation saw very limited activity in the 1990s; in the worst year – 1999 – the
3 50 // August 2020 #389
average pilot’s flight time was 21 hours per year. But even then, Russian bombers occasionally ventured into distant regions. In June 1999, a pair of Tu-95MS bombers completed a 15-hour flight from Engels to Iceland during the Zapad-99 exercise. Another pair of Tu-160s flew along the coast of Norway. On the way back, one aircraft from each pair fired a Kh-55 missile at a training ground on the Caspian Sea. In September the same year, two pairs of Tu-95MS – using the ‘forward airfields’ at Anadyr and Tiksi – approached the shores of Canada. Distant patrolling became routine again in the new millennium. There was particularly intense activity in 2007, when strategic bombers made 70-80 such missions. In 2019, according to defence minister Sergei Shoigu,
Russian bombers flew 48 long-distance patrol flights. On July 23 last year, for the first time in history, a pair of Tu-95MS aircraft conducted a joint patrol flight over the Sea of Japan with two Chinese H-6K bombers. During a long-distance flight, the bombers replenish their fuel from Il-78M Midas tankers. On occasions, A-50 Mainstay early warning aircraft are involved in the operation; sometimes, the bombers are accompanied by Flanker or Foxhound fighters on the initial sections of the route. If the Russian aircraft get too close to another country’s coast, they will be intercepted by their respective fighters. This is often an opportunity for operational debuts of new Western fighters. The RAF’s Typhoon F2 made its first live intercept on August 17, 2007 when two examples from No XI (Fighter) Squadron at RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire, shadowed a Tu-95MS for the first
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time. At the other end of the world, near Alaska, on November 22, 2007, F-22As from Elmendorf Air Force Base shadowed two Tu-95MS bombers, in the first such intercept for the Raptor. More recently, on March 7 this year, Russian aircraft (not bombers, but a pair of Tu-142 maritime patrol aircraft) were intercepted for the first time by Royal Norwegian Air Force F-35As. Sometimes, Russian strategic bombers pay visits to friendly countries. The most ‘exotic’ recent international visits were those of two Tu-160s to Air Force Base Waterkloof in South Africa in October last year, and of two Tu-95MS bombers to Frans Kaisiepo Airport in Indonesia in December 2017. In December 2018 (and again in 2008 and 2013) a pair of Blackjacks visited Venezuela. The introduction of non-nuclear cruise missiles – to be covered in more depth in the second part of this article – has made it possible to use Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft in real warfare. This happened for the first time in November 2015 over Syria. According to the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, during a four-day operation from November 17 to 20, Tu-95s flew six sorties and Tu-160s flew ten (in addition to 96 sorties by Backfires), launching 48 Kh-101 and 35 Kh-555 cruise missiles. The bombers flew to their targets from Engels, over the Caspian Sea, and launched their weapons over Iranian territory, close to the Iraqi border. The exception was the mission conducted on November 20, 2015 when two Tu-160s took off from Olenyegorsk base in northern Russia, flew round Norway and the British Isles, entered the Mediterranean Sea via Gibraltar and flew over the entire Mediterranean to launch eight Kh-555 missiles against targets in Syria. Then, flying over Syria, Iraq, Iran and the Caspian Sea, they returned to their home base at Engels; the route covered more than 7,019nm (13,000km).
Long-Range Aviation’s order of battle
The Russian Dalnyaya Aviatsiya (DA, LongRange Aviation) is directly subordinated to the Supreme Command of the Armed
2
Long-Range Aviation Command HQ: Moscow Formation
Unit
22 TBAD
HQ/location
Inventory
Engels 121 TBAP
Engels
52 TBAP
Shaykovka
Tu-22M3 (2 sqn)
40 SAP
Vysokiy (Olenyegorsk)
Tu-22M3 (1 sqn), transports (1 sqn)
326 TBAD
Tu-160 (1 sqn), Tu-95MS (1 sqn)
Ukrainka (Seryshevo) 182 TBAP
Ukrainka (Seryshevo)
Tu-95MS (3 sqn)
200 TBAP
Belaya near Irkutsk
Tu-22M3 (2 sqn), An-30 (1 det)
203 OAP SZ
Dyagilevo (Ryazan)
Il-78/Il-78M (2 sqn)
43 TsBP PLS DA
Dyagilevo (Ryazan)
Tu-22M3, Tu-95MS, Tu-134UBL, An-26
Tambov
Tu-134 and An-26 trainers, transports
OAP SZ
Otdelnyi aviatsionnyi polk samolotov zapravshchikov
Independent Tanker Aviation Regiment
SAP
Smeshannyi aviatsionnyi polk
Composite Aviation Regiment
TBAD
Tyazholaya bombardirovochnaya aviatsionnaya diviziya
Heavy Bomber Aviation Division
TBAP
Tyazholyi bombardirovochnyi aviatsionnyi Heavy Bomber Aviation Regiment polk
TsBP PLS DA
Tsentr boyevoy podgotovki i pereuchivaniya lyotnogo sostava Dalney aviatsii
27 SAP Abbreviations
Combat Training and Flight Crew Conversion Centre of Long-Range Aviation
1: Tu-160 ‘11 Red’/RF-94114 ‘Vasiliy Senko’ takes part in an aerial refuelling exercise. Surprisingly, the ‘Blackjack’ was only formally commissioned into service on December 30, 2005; although the bombers had been operated by Soviet and Russian air arms from 1987, this was officially considered a trial. 2: A Tu-22M3 cruises above the cloud. In Russia the Tu-22M is classed as a long-range bomber, in contrast to the Tu-160 and Tu-95 strategic bombers. In line with 1980 treaty restrictions, the Tu-22M’s refuelling probe was removed; while it can, in theory, be reinstated, this is a complex undertaking. Evgeniy Kazennov 3: Taxiing for take-off, Tu-160 ‘08 Red’/RF94115 ‘Vitaliy Kopylov’ was taking part in a routine training sortie. This bomber was one of the eight ex-Ukrainian examples and arrived at Engels on April 29, 2008. 4: One of the 200 TBAP ‘Backfires’ that was briefly deployed to Hamedan air base in Iran in August 2016, for operations over Syria, Tu-22M3 ‘42 Red’/RF-34038 launches here from its base at Belaya in Russia. Evgeniy Kazennov
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Long-Range Aviation
1 Forces and is managed by Long-Range Aviation Command based in Moscow. Since September 16, 2016, it has been commanded by Lieutenant General Sergey Kobylash. A former Su-25 pilot and commander of the 368th Attack Aviation Regiment in Budyonnovsk, Kobylash’s appointment as a non-DA officer
Russia’s Long-Range Aviation, estimated numerical strength Heavy bombers
Tu-22M3 (60), Tu-95MS (50), Tu-160 (17)
Tankers
Il-78/Il-78M (18)
Photogrammetric An-30B (3) aircraft Trainers
An-26 (5), Tu-134 (10)
Transports
An-12 (5), An-26 (5), Mi-8 (5), Mi-26 (4)
Only aircraft in service are counted.
was a significant surprise at the time. Long-Range Aviation has two almost symmetrical aviation divisions, the 22 TBAD headquartered at Engels in the European part of Russia, and the 326 TBAD headquartered at Ukrainka in the Asian part. Each division has one strategic bomber regiment and one or two long-range bomber regiments; in Russian terminology the Tu-160 and Tu-95 are classified as strategic bombers while Tu-22Ms are long-range bombers.
22 TBAD in Europe
The assignment of unit traditions within the Russian air arm is highly arbitrary. Throughout each unit’s history, subordinations and locations have repeatedly changed – as, on occasion, have their roles. Often, the units have been divided and merged with others. The ‘European’ 22 TBAD derives its history
from the 62nd Long-Range Aviation Division formed in March 1942 at Dyagilevo (Ryazan). From the end of World War Two until the demise of the USSR, it was stationed in Belarus and had three regiments – the 200 TBAP, 121 TBAP and 203 TBAP – with Tu-22 Blinder bombers. In 1992, the division moved to Russia: the division’s headquarters and the 121st and 203rd regiments relocated to Engels, while the 200 TBAP switched to Belaya air base near Lake Baikal. In 1994, the 22nd was dismantled, but after three years, in 1997, its number, banner and titles were transferred to the 201 TBAD in Engels. The 201 TBAD had been formed at Engels in 1954 with M-4 and 3M Bison bombers, which were converted into tankers towards the end of their lives. In 2010, the 22 TBAD was transformed into the 6950th Air Base, and in 2015 it was re-established as the 22 TBAD. The division received the Guards title on September 18, 1943; this date is now marked as the 22nd Guards Heavy Bomber Aviation Division day. Its commander is Colonel Oleg Pchela. All the division’s strategic bombers are based at Engels and are organised in the 121 TBAP, which began its history in 1940. Between 1952 and 1994, the regiment was stationed at Machulishchi in Belarus and operated B-25 Mitchell, Tu-4, Tu-16 and Tu-22 aircraft, in that order. In 1994, the regiment – minus its aircraft, which were scrapped – moved to Engels in Russia, where it took over the equipment (including the first Tu-160s) and personnel of the 1096 TBAP. The 1096 TBAP had existed at Engels since 1954, but didn’t have the historic traditions of the 121 TBAP. Another regiment stationed until recently in Engels was the 184 TBAP created in 2000 using Tu-95MS bombers transferred to Engels from Mozdok air base. In 2009, both regiments – the 121st and 184th – were transformed into aviation groups of the 6950th Air Base. In 2015, when Russia converted its air bases back into divisions and regiments, only one regiment, the 121 TBAP, was reconfigured. It incorporated all the bombers based in Engels and now has one Tu-160 squadron and one Tu-95MS squadron. There is a long-range aviation museum at Engels air base, unfortunately not open to the public. The most interesting
1: A Tu-22M3 tucks up its undercarriage after take-off: each of the two Kuznetsov NK-25 turbofans develops 55,115lb st of thrust with afterburning. Note the two BD-45K pylons under the fixed wing gloves, for carriage of the Kh-22/Kh-32 cruise missile. 2: Up close and personal with a Tu-95MS performing mock aerial refuelling during a Victory Day parade rehearsal. The bomber’s range with a single inflight refuelling is 8,761 miles, compared with 4,039 miles unrefuelled, and with a full load of six internal and ten external cruise missiles. 3: Returning to the tarmac after last year’s Victory Day parade, this is Tu-95MS ‘61 Red’/RF-94187. This was the reserve aircraft for the flypast and was involved in the May 9 celebrations for the first time. 4: Tu-95MS ‘16 Red’/RF-94124 ‘Veliki Novogorod’. This aircraft has since been upgraded to M1 standard, which involves replacing some secondary equipment, including the satellite navigation receiver, VHF omnidirectional range/instrument landing system, shortrange radio navigation system and automatic direction finder. Evgeniy Kazennov
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2 exhibits are the Tu-22K-22 Bear-G strategic bomber, as well as a Kh-20 (AS-3 Kangaroo) heavy air-to-surface missile. There are also two Tu-22M Backfire regiments in Europe. The 52 TBAP was formed in 1944; it has been stationed at Shaykovka since 1959 and has been flying Tu-22Ms since 1982. In 2010, the unit took over Tu-22M3 bombers from the dissolved 840 TBAP at Soltsy. Another Backfire unit, the 40 SAP at Vysokiy airfield near Olenyegorsk joined Long-Range Aviation on April 1, 2011; previously, it was the 924th Naval Missile-Carrying Aviation Regiment that was part of the navy. It was established in 1938 and has been stationed in Olenyegorsk since 1965. From the 1950s it flew Tu-16s followed from 1988 by Tu-22M3s. The regiment is termed ‘composite’ because it also includes transport aircraft and helicopters (including heavy Mi-26s) serving bases in the Arctic.
326 TBAD in Asia
The ‘Asian’ 326 TBAD was formed on October 10, 1943 in Ukraine. In June 1945, when the war in Europe was over, the division moved to the Far East, to Mongolia, and, after the surrender of Japan, to Sakhalin. In 1951, the division returned to Europe, first to Machulishchi in Belarus, then Soltsy in Russia, and, from 1959, Tartu in Estonia. After the collapse of the USSR, in 1992 the division staff moved from Estonia to Soltsy in Russia, and in 1998 to Ukrainka (Seryshevo) in Russia’s Far East, where it remains to this day. In 2009, the division was re-formed into the 6952nd Air Base, and in 2015 it was reconstituted as the 326 TBAD. The division has the Guards title, although this was taken over in the course of the reorganisation of one of its regiments, the 182 TBAP, when it was disbanded in 2009. The division’s commander is Colonel Andrey Malyshev.
Currently, the division has two regiments, one with the Tu-95MS and one with the Tu-22M3. The 182 TBAP is stationed in Ukrainka, together with the division headquarters. The unit derives its traditions from the 18th LongRange Bomber Regiment established in Serpukhov in 1943 with Il-4 bombers. After World War Two, the regiment was stationed at Nezhin in Belarus, and then at Pryluky, Ukraine; it operated Tu-4 bombers, followed from 1955 by Tu-16s. In 1962, the 18th was disbanded, but a month later its staff formed a new unit with new Tu-95K strategic missile carriers at Mozdok air base. The regiment took over all 18 BAP titles, but also received a new number and became the 182 TBAP. In 1998, when Mozdok was judged unsafe due to its proximity to the turbulent North Caucasus region, the 182 TBAP’s Tu-95MS aircraft were relocated to Engels, where they
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Long-Range Aviation
1 formed the new 184 TBAP in 2000. In turn, the staff from Mozdok moved to Ukrainka, where they joined the local 40 TBAP with Tu-95MS aircraft previously removed from Kazakhstan; the combined unit was given the number and traditions of the 182 TBAP. One more regiment, the 79 TBAP, was stationed at Ukrainka, also with Tu-95MS aircraft. In 2009, the 79th and 182nd regiments were transformed into aviation groups of the 6952nd Air Base. In December 2015, only one regiment, the 182nd, was restored at Ukrainka, incorporating all the base’s Tu-95MS bombers. Tu-22M3s in Asia are stationed at Belaya airfield near Irkutsk. The 200 TBAP was formed in October 1943 as the 112th Night-Bomber Unit. In 1944, the regiment received the Guards title, and the new number 26, but this was
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changed to 200 in 1946. After the war, the regiment was stationed at Bobruisk, Belarus; it first flew B-25 Mitchells, replaced by Tu-4s in 1949, followed by Tu-16s (1955) and Tu-22M3s (1986). After the collapse of the USSR, the regiment was moved to Belaya in 1994. There, the 200 TBAP subsequently absorbed aircraft and personnel of several dissolved Tu-22M bomber units: the 1225 TBAP and 1229 TBAP from Belaya in 1998, and the 444 TBAP from Vozdvizhenka in 2009. In 2011, the unit also included a squadron of Tu-22M3s previously belonging to the 568th Regiment of Naval Missile Carriers in Mongokhto. In the years of organisational turmoil between 2009 and 2015, the regiment was transformed into the 6953rd Air Base, then into an air group of the 6952nd Air Base and was finally returned to the
previous 200 TBAP name. The regiment also has a detachment of photogrammetric An-30B Clank aircraft; in the past it was a separate unit, the 181st Independent Aviation Squadron, but currently only a few aircraft remain.
Forward airfields
Russian strategic bombers are stationed at Engels and Ukrainka air bases, located near the country’s southern borders. For this reason, to make a strike in the north (for example, against the US, flying via the North Pole) they need so-called forward airfields, which began to be created in the Arctic regions of the USSR back in the 1950s. At Tiksi, Anadyr and Vorkuta airfields, there are duty posts with a few personnel, fuel supplies and runways maintained in
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sufficient condition. If necessary, bombers from the south can land at the forward airfield, refuel and take off to continue their flight. In October 2017, a Tu-22M3 bomber with a crew headed by Colonel D Golubinsky from the 200 TBAP made the first-ever Backfire landing at Anadyr airfield in Chukotka, 380nm (700km) from Alaska. On August 15, 2018, a pair of Tu-160s landed at Anadyr for the first time. Tu-95MS bombers have been using Anadyr’s forward airfield for several decades.
Tankers
Two formations within Long-Range Aviation – a tanker regiment and a crew conversion centre – are not part of any division but are directly subordinated to the DA Command in Moscow. Although all new tactical aircraft in Russia can refuel in the air, the lack of tanker aircraft makes this somewhat irrelevant. In the event of a conflict, Il-78 Midas tanker aircraft will only serve strategic bombers. Therefore, the only tanker aircraft unit in Russia is subordinated to Long-Range Aviation Command, with around 18 Midas aircraft (including several older Il-78 versions as well as more modern Il-78Ms). Today’s 203rd Independent Tanker Aviation Regiment (203 OAP SZ) was formed at Engels in 1960 as the 1230th Regiment with M-4 Bison ex-bombers converted into tankers; in 1989-93 they were replaced by Il-78 aircraft. In 1994, the unit received the number and regalia of the historic 203 TBAP. In 2000, as the 203 OAP SZ, it moved from Engels to Dyagilevo near Ryazan, where it remains to this day. In the turmoil affecting the air force between 2009 and 2013, the regiment was first disbanded (the Il-78s were incorporated into the 43 TsBP PLS DA, see below), and then in December 2013 it was re-established with the previous 203 OAP SZ name and with the Guards title. The 203 TBAP was created at Monino near Moscow on July 6, 1941, as the 412th Bomber Regiment on Pe-8 heavy bombers. In April 1942, Soviet foreign minister Vyacheslav Molotov flew on one of the unit’s aircraft to the
2 US; the flight took him over Germany to the UK, and then over the Atlantic. The unit underwent many reincarnations before receiving the number 203 in 1946. After the war, the regiment was stationed at Baranovichi in Belarus with Tu-4, Tu-16 (from 1954) and Tu-22 (from 1962) bombers. In 1994, the 203 TBAP was disbanded and its number and regalia handed over to the 1230th Tanker Regiment.
Crew conversion centre
Long-Range Aviation has its own centre responsible for the development of tactics for the combat application of heavy bombers and conversion of crews for new types and versions of bombers. The 43rd Combat Training and Flight Crew Conversion Centre of Long-Range Aviation (43 TsBP PLS DA) was
established in 1940, and its current name has been known since 1968; from the beginning of its existence it has been stationed at Dyagilevo (Ryazan). In 2010-13, the centre was subordinated to the air force’s 4th Combat Training Centre in Lipetsk, but then returned to Long-Range Aviation Command control. The centre has several Tu-22M3 medium and Tu-95MS strategic bombers at Dyagilevo, as well as training and transport aircraft within the 27 SAP, a composite regiment in Tambov. The 27 SAP currently has Tu-134UBL pilot and Tu-134Sh navigator training aircraft, An-26 aircraft in training and transport versions, plus single An-12 and Mi-8 transports. In Dyagilevo there is also an aviation museum, in which the most interesting exhibits are examples of the M-4 and 3M-T Bison, and Tu-95K-20 Bear-B. AFM
1: Tu-22M3 ‘16 Red’/RF-94144 taking off for a training flight as another ‘Backfire’ taxies to the runway. Compared with the ‘Bear’ and ‘Blackjack’, the Tu-22M fleet has seen much more extensive combat service, including participating in conflicts in Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia and – most recently – Syria. 2: The view from the cockpit of a Tu-95MS as it approaches an Il-78M tanker. On its middle hardpoint, the Il-78M can carry the improved PAZ-1M refuelling pod optimised for heavy aircraft and offering an increased transfer rate of 766 gallons per minute. 3: Kh-101 cruise missiles loaded on a Tu-95MS before a mission to Syria. Known to NATO as the AS-23A ‘Kodiak’, this conventionally armed weapon uses a guidance system combining inertial navigation, satellite navigation, terrain contour matching, plus an electro-optical package for the terminal phase. Russian MoD 4: Tu-160 ‘02 Red’/RF-94102 ‘Vasiliy Reshetnikov’ lands at the Anadyr ‘forward airfield’ on August 14 last year. This aircraft was one of two Tu-160M1s redelivered after a modest upgrade in which the inertial navigation and engine control systems, as well as armament, were enhanced using “modern digital technologies”. Anadyr Airport
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Italian Air Force F-2000
AMI Typhoon
spreads its wings The Eurofighter Typhoon is now well established in the Italian Air Force’s order of battle. Mauro Zanotto looks back at the jet’s successful path to the front line, while Katsuhiko Tokunaga flies with the 36° Stormo at Gioia del Colle air base, home of Italy’s biggest frontline F-2000 wing.
T
he story of the Eurofighter in Italian service officially began on June 10, 2003, when the Aeronautica Militare (AM, Italian Air Force) formally accepted its first aircraft, a TF-2000A two-seater Instrumented Production Aircraft 2 (IPA2), with the experimental serial MMX614 (PT002). The jet had made its maiden flight on April 5 the previous year – the first of the IPA aircraft to fly. Broadly equivalent to a series-production aircraft, IPA2 was modified with test instrumentation and was destined to continue trials activities with Alenia Aeronautica (now Leonardo). Above all, the aircraft has been involved in the development of air-to-ground armament and the MBDA Meteor beyondvisual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM). Italy’s first true series-production aircraft was TF-2000A, serial MM55092 (IT001), which was delivered at the Caselle factory near Turin on February 19, 2004. This aircraft remained with Alenia Aeronautica for training military personnel on the new type. The original plan had been to deliver this jet to the 1° Reparto
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Manutenzione Velivoli (RMV) at Cameri, in Novara, the air force’s main engineering, maintenance and logistics hub for fast jets, where it would initiate ‘On the Job Training’ (OJT) but, for organisational reasons, it was decided the aircraft would remain at Caselle. Here, the initial groups of personnel from the AM’s 4° Stormo (4th Wing) completed their maintenance courses on the aircraft.
Initial operational deliveries
The first aircraft to be delivered to an operational unit was TF-2000A serial MM55093 (IT002), which was accepted at Caselle and arrived with the 4° Stormo at Grosseto in the central region of Tuscany on March 16, 2004. The aircraft performed its first training mission the same day and, over the following weeks, another two Typhoons – MM55095 and MM55094 – joined the unit, eventually enabling the wing to begin its pilot training programme. In this early stage
of the fighter’s service introduction, the 4° Stormo’s maintenance squadron, the 904° Gruppo Efficienza Aeromobili (GEA), had yet to be established, so the first aircraft were assigned directly to the 9° Gruppo (9th Squadron). For this reason, three of the first four F-2000s received codes with low numbers (4-1, 4-3 and 4-4), traditionally allocated to aircraft of the 9° Gruppo, while a single aircraft (MM55095) was coded 4-23, which is associated with the 20° Gruppo, the type operational conversion unit (OCU). Commencing in 2002, well ahead of the arrival of the first Eurofighter, the 4° Stormo had assumed a mixed and flexible organisational structure, intended to manage both the retirement from service of the final F-104s and the introduction of the new aircraft. The 9° Gruppo, along with personnel and pilots
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Above: The view from the back seat of a TF-2000A as the wingman holds station off the port wing. The Typhoon’s wing is fitted with slats and flaperons, has a surface area of 50m2 and is slightly warped at the tips to enhance low-speed performance.
Left: Typhoon on a knife edge: F-2000A MM7312 ‘36-34’ demonstrates the fighter’s exceptional agility. The canard foreplanes assist longitudinal stability and, when required, increase lift while reducing drag at high angles of attack, enhancing manoeuvrability. All photos Katsuhiko Tokunaga/DACT unless stated Insert: James Lawrence
of the 20° Gruppo and the 904° GEA, was entrusted with activities connected with the new fighter, while the 20° Gruppo (also with mixed personnel) was responsible for managing final Starfighter operations, including standing quick reaction alert (QRA) on behalf of the Servizio di Sorveglianza dello Spazio Aereo (SSSA, National Airspace Surveillance Service). During October 2003, the first four aircrew from the 9° Gruppo (one pilot) and the 20° Gruppo (three pilots), plus a first group of engineers, commenced the initial Typhoon conversion course at Caselle. The engineers followed modules for aircraft managers, crew chiefs, airframe engineers, engine technicians, electrical system engineers and avionics and armament technicians, each lasting two to three months. Meanwhile, the pilots completed ground school in six weeks and then
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awaited delivery of the first aircraft, to commence flying activities. The experience they accumulated would be used to produce the first operational manuals for the AM’s Eurofighter.
Conversion to Typhoon
The initial basic type-conversion courses were carried out at Grosseto between midMarch and August 4, 2004, using the first three aircraft. The instructors were two test pilots from the Reparto Sperimentale Volo (RSV, Flight Test Department), who had already been assigned to the programme for some time Type conversion involved six sorties, of which the fourth was at night and the final mission was flown solo. On completion of transition, the first four pilots underwent the Basic Instructor Course (BIC) beginning at the end of May 2004. This was a programme of around 35 flying hours intended to qualify future EF2000 instructors. The BIC also included basic fighter manoeuvres (BFM) and air combat manoeuvres (ACM), plus an aerial refuelling mission. The initial courses – each restricted to four pilots to uphold the desired ratio between
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Italian Air Force F-2000 Break! A three-ship of 36° Stormo Typhoons high over their Tuscany home. The fighter’s flightcontrol system provides the pilot with “carefree performance” and includes automatic low-speed recovery and a disorientation recovery facility, which can take control of the aircraft and return it to a safe attitude.
qualified pilots and available flying hours – were structured around the BIC syllabus, which was considered sufficient to qualify pilots with existing fighter experience – aviators declared combat-ready on the F-104 or more advanced fighters, such as the F-16, F/A18 or Mirage 2000. With the impending service entry of the Typhoon, the AM had detached some of the best pilots from its fighter force on exchange with allied air forces since the beginning of the millennium. This allowed them to develop vital experience of aircraft that were far more modern than the venerable Starfighter. In parallel with these activities – and given the delays in installing flight simulators at Grosseto – the qualified pilots were initially sent to Caselle once a month for the required
sessions in the simulator. Despite the restricted number of available aircraft, in 2004 the 4° Stormo was able to quickly achieve a high utilisation rate for the Typhoon. The first 100 sorties (with two jets available) had already been flown by the beginning of July 2004 and, by the end of that year (when five aircraft were available), 370 hours had been flown. Indeed, considering it was so new and complex, the availability demonstrated by the Typhoon was remarkable, exceeding the highest expectations of the pilots and engineers. Technical support for 4° Stormo flying operations was provided by Alenia Aeronautica and Avio under the BOSS (Batch One Support System) contract. The two companies provided around 140 engineers at Grosseto between the start of operations and December 31, 2006, assuming full responsibility for
Italian Typhoon test aircraft
DA3: single-seat Development Aircraft 3, serial MMX602, was first flown on June 4, 1995. Initially lacking the radar system, it was, however, the first Typhoon with EJ200 engines. It was used for trials of the engine and underwing tanks and for the first firing tests with the BK27 gun. Later it was employed for performance tests, as well as trials of external loads, including their release. It completed its final flight on February 7, 2006. IPA2: a two-seater, Instrumented Production Aircraft 2, serial MMX614, completed its maiden flight on April 5, 2002 and was the first IPA aircraft to fly. Mainly used for integration of weapons and the PIRATE infrared search and track system, it has also been utilised for trials of the improved EJ200 engines, after upgrade to Tranche 2 standard.
Italian Air Force Typhoon units Unit
Base
Primary equipment
Reparto SperiPratica di mentale Volo (RSV) Mare 311º Gruppo 4° Stormo
F-2000A/TF-2000A Grosseto
9° Gruppo
F-2000A
20° Gruppo OCU 36° Stormo
TF-2000A Gioia del Colle
10° Gruppo
F-2000A
12° Gruppo 37° Stormo
F-2000A TrapaniBirgi
18° Gruppo 51° Stormo A pair of specially marked single-seat jets. Nearest camera is MM7312 ‘36-34’, with MM7322 ‘36-40’ behind. Both have 351a Squadriglia markings on the tailfins, applied for the 2018 NATO Tiger Meet.
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132° Gruppo
F-2000A Istrana F-2000A (‘51-01’, ‘51-02’, ‘51-03’)
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Above: Ground crew conduct final preparations on an F-2000A in one of the shelters at Gioia del Colle. Around 80% of the airframe is composed of advanced materials – approximately 70% of the external (or ‘wet’) area and 40% of the structural mass are manufactured from carbon-fibre composites. Below: The IRIS-T (or AIM-2000) is the short-range missile of choice for Italian Eurofighters. This weapon was introduced from Batch 2 production aircraft onwards and features a smokeless rocket engine and thrust-vectored exhaust controls.
aircraft serviceability in place of the military personnel. In practice, the aircraft were taken on charge by the 4° Stormo prior to each flight and after the landing were returned to the control of the manufacturer. The wing’s engineers closely followed the maintenance and inspection activities performed by their civilian counterparts, to provide a further period of OJT and to exercise a control function. Using this system, it was possible to enhance the experience of the military engineers and simultaneously deliver an excellent fleet availability rate. Successive operational milestones reached by the 4° Stormo included the first 500 flying hours on March 29, 2005, and the first 1,000 flying hours on October 19 of the same year. The first single-seat F-2000A Typhoon delivered to Grosseto was MM7270 coded 4-20.
Since the Tranche 1 aircraft were delivered in different configurations and standards, the AM and Alenia also agreed on an upgrade to the programme aimed at bringing the aircraft to a single configuration standard.
F-2000 into action
The first official operational mission for the Italian Eurofighter fleet began on February 10, 2006, when the new fighter was tasked to provide air defence of Piedmont during the 2006 Winter Olympics held in Turin. The jets participated in Operation Jupiter 02/2006, in co-operation with F-16s, MB-339s and HH-3F helicopters. From May 8, 2006, the F-2000 took part in an international exercise for the first time, when it flew during Spring Flag 2006, held at Decimomannu air base in Sardinia. Ever since, the AM’s Eurofighters have
participated in countless local and international exercises to ensure full integration in NATO and the national air defence system. The AM has deployed Eurofighters to Kuwait for tactical reconnaissance missions and for air policing in the Baltic States, Bulgaria, Iceland and Romania. Under an agreement signed by the respective governments, the AM Typhoons also provide air defence of Slovenian airspace. More recently, F-2000s have been cleared to provide both air-to-air and air-toground missions, including close air support. The Aeronautica Militare and Kuwait Air Force signed a co-operation agreement, under which the former provides training for Kuwaiti pilots destined for the Typhoon, as well as other new military pilots, at the training base of Lecce-Galatina, home of the 61° Stormo. The Kuwaiti connection extends to Ahmad
A smart five-ship echelon formation off the Tuscan coast. Note the PIRATE sensors ahead of the cockpit – this system integrates forward looking infrared and infrared search and track equipment. It can reportedly track aerial targets at up to 93 miles.
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Italian Air Force F-2000 F-2000A ‘36-12’ in the climb off the Italian coast, with a Litening pod on the centreline. The Litening 3 pod currently in use on the Tranche 2 and 3 jets has a limited air-to-air potential and is mainly used for designation of ground targets.
The specially marked two-ship is joined by a TF-2000A ‘twin-sticker’, MM5128 ‘36-64’. The frontline squadrons have at least two twin-seaters for training and operational duties.
al-Jaber Air Base, the location of Task Group Typhoon, from where Italian F-2000As operate as part of the Task Force Air Kuwait mission. In the Middle East, the Italian Typhoon conducts tactical reconnaissance missions in support of Prima Parthica – the Italian contribution to Operation Inherent Resolve. Today, each AM wing equipped with the single-seat F-2000A also has at least two TF-2000A twin-seaters for training and operational duties. In common with the AM’s Tornado component, F-2000 squadrons don’t have a dedicated maintenance squadron. Instead, maintenance squadrons have been established within the wings; these cover all technical requirements, enhancing aircraft availability, serviceability and optimising the flight line. The Typhoon squadrons themselves only consist of pilots, ground crew and administrative personnel. The 36° Stormo at Gioia del Colle air base in Apulia, southern Italy, received its first Typhoon on October 1, 2007. On January 5, 2009, the wing’s constituent 12° Gruppo began participating in the SSSA National Airspace Surveillance Service, and on July 1, 2010, it added the 10° Gruppo that was transferred from the 37° Stormo at Trapani. Today it’s the only AM unit responsible for two operational F-2000 squadrons and also includes an aircraft maintenance squadron, the 936° GEA. The latter provides technical and logistical support for the entire Italian F-2000 fleet together with the 1° RMV, the aircraft maintenance department at Cameri. Away from the mainland, on the island of Sicily, can be found the 37° Stormo, which includes a single frontline squadron, the 18° Gruppo (see Trapani Typhoons, April, p78-81). A first Typhoon was officially delivered to the wing on October 18, 2012. Since the Sicilian-based 18° Gruppo is relatively small, Eurofighters from the 36° and 4° Stormo – from Gioia del Colle and Grossetto air bases, respectively – regularly join the Trapani QRA schedule. The latest frontline Italian unit to receive the Typhoon is the 51° Stormo at Istrana in the
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northern region of Veneto. The wing’s 132° Gruppo is now responsible for the air defence mission, after it received its first Typhoons in 2019; the wing officially began QRA duties with the F-2000 earlier this year. Since 2017, F-2000s and crews from other AM wings had been rotationally deployed to Istrana for QRA duties. Last year, however, the 51° Stormo attained full operational capability with the type, after activation of the required maintenance facility, including provision for full technical inspections. Currently, the F-2000 is operated alongside 132° Gruppo’s AMX A-11s – flying the tactical reconnaissance mission – which are scheduled to be withdrawn later this year.
Current operations and future enhancements
The AM Typhoon fleet can now call upon Tranche 2 and Tranche 3 aircraft, both updated to Phase 1 Enhancement (P1Eb) standard. Meanwhile, the remaining Tranche 1 jets have been modified to ITA Mod 04 configuration, allowing for use of the RecceLite pod, for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions.
In terms of armament, the fleet is provided with AIM-120C-5 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) and the shortrange IRIS-T missile with infra-red guidance for air defence. For air-to-ground missions, the Italian Typhoon can be armed with 1,000lb (454kg) GBU-16 Paveway laser-guided bombs, plus dual-mode GBU-48 Enhanced Paveway bombs with laser and GPS guidance. In the not too distant future, the AM’s Typhoon fleet will be updated to Phase 2 Enhancement (P2E) standard that will include augmentation of long-range attack capabilities. The P2E update programme is due to begin at end of 2021 and will allow integration of the Storm Shadow cruise missile. In the air-toair role, P2E improvements will encompass integration of the Meteor BVRAAM. The AM’s Typhoon force is also benefitting from the forthcoming retirement of the A-11 fighter-bomber. Transferring experienced air-to-ground pilots from the AMX flight line to the F-2000 has provided a welcome boost for the Eurofighter, as more pilots become proficient in both the air-toair and air-to-ground environments. AFM
The pilot of MM7312 ‘36-34’ prepares to taxi out to the active runway. The pilot’s Martin-Baker Mk16A ejector seat is inclined 18° to the rear to better withstand the rigours of high-G manoeuvres.
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A PHOTOGRAPHIC GUIDE TO THE BATTLE OF BRITAIN’S SURVIVING AIRCRAFT The Battle of Britain is widely considered to be Britain’s finest hour. The ‘Few’ will not be forgotten, nor will they be around forever to recount the heroism of the summer of 1940 first-hand. In contrast, the number of restored and preserved aircraft in our museums and skies is at an all-time high. This book features a brief history of all the front-line RAF fighter aircraft that were involved in the famous battle and explores some of the major training and support aeroplanes that contributed to the iconic events. The story is told using over 150 photographs of surviving and restored aircraft in the air, on the ground and in unique formations together.
128 PAGES, SOFTBACK.
AUTHOR LEE CHAPMAN
Foreword by the Officer Commanding and the Senior Engineering Officer of the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
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18/06/2020 14:41
Commander’s Update Briefing
Rotary operations
Who does it best?
“Undoubtedly, the UK’s helicopter units will pursue and embrace even closer integration, but not necessarily for reasons of cost savings. Rather, it is being led by the increasing requirement for maximum flexibility and, when necessary, the need to operate more closely together.”
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Within the UK Armed Forces, helicopters can be found in all three services. Having a range of different rotary types and missions in close co-operation via a joint command is a highly effective setup, as Air Power Association President, Air Marshal (ret’d) Greg Bagwell CB CBE explains.
F
irst, I must make a confession. I have only spent around 30 hours total at the controls of some eight helicopter types – and none of those were without having someone who really knew what they were doing being close to hand. Even in that short time I gained a very useful appreciation of the challenges of operating helicopters and, importantly, an understanding of the very different roles and capabilities of each one. So please excuse this fixed-wing operator’s take on the very different and unique world of helicopters. Individual military services have always wrangled over the ownership of aviation (I will address this a little more in next month’s article). This is particularly true when it comes to helicopters. Of course, rotorcraft were invented long after the formation of the RAF as an independent air force but, due to their very nature, they have always been an integral element of maritime and land operations, which has traditionally weakened the argument for them being subsumed into an independent air force. Before I describe the relative merits of ownership, let’s quickly look at the basic roles and character of rotary aviation in the three UK services (excluding the specialised tasks of Special Forces). The RAF role is dominated by the movement of relatively large numbers of troops by Puma or Chinook; while largely
conducted from land, the air force is also more than capable of doing so from large ships. The Royal Navy provides a similar capability for the Royal Marines using the Merlin HC3/4, but its more specific roles are multi-role support for frigates and destroyers with the Wildcat, anti-submarine activity by Merlin HM2, and air surveillance using the Crowsnest-equipped Merlin HM2. Last but not least, the British Army primarily combines the small tactical utility of the Wildcat with the potent air assault role of the Apache.
Multiple types, many roles
The first thing you notice about the UK Ministry of Defence’s rotary fleets is the relatively large number of types in generally small fleet sizes, which can, if unchecked, lead to increased cost of ownership. It also means that training for so many types and roles can be quite complex and potentially costly. And the number of squadrons and units operating across all three services create the likelihood of multiple command arrangements and support structures. In normal circumstances, all of this would have made a compelling case for single ownership, and were the very reasons that swung the argument for an independent RAF. As this was recognised as a very real issue, the UK came to a rather unusual solution and formed the Joint Helicopter Command (JHC) in 1999. This brought “under a single command
Top: While some nations assign medium-lift troop-transport rotorcraft to their army aviation branches, the UK’s Puma HC2 fleet is the responsibility of the RAF. This No 33 Squadron Puma HC2 is performing a brownout landing during Exercise Jebel Sahara in Morocco. The HC2 added more powerful engines, providing a useful increase in performance, especially in hot and high conditions. Crown Copyright Above left: A sailor is winched onto the Wildcat HMA2 serving on board the Type 23 frigate HMS ‘Montrose’ during a global deployment last year. Operated by the Fleet Air Arm, the Wildcat HMA2 community from Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset, provides Royal Navy warships with embarked flights – in this case, 203 Flight, part of 815 Naval Air Squadron. Crown Copyright Above right: Operating from the Type 23 frigate HMS ‘Kent’, an 814 Naval Air Squadron Merlin HM2 from Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose, Cornwall, conducts training variant torpedo (TVT) loading drills on June 10, during the BALTOPS 20 exercise. Note the inert Stingray torpedo carried on the port sponson. The annual NATO exercise includes gunnery serials, man overboard training, air defence and antisubmarine exercises, plus close-proximity sailing. Crown Copyright Left: Integration of Joint Helicopter Command assets extends beyond the UK Armed Forces. This RAF Chinook from No 27 Squadron at RAF Odiham in Hampshire is flying with a pair of US Marine Corps CH-53Es during a twilight training sortie over the Arizona desert in 2018. Two Chinooks were deployed to Marine Corps Air Station Yuma to take part in a Weapons and Tactics Instructor training programme. The WTI course helped develop pilots and non-commissioned officers to instructor level. Crown Copyright
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Commander’s Update Briefing
the battlefield helicopters of the Royal Navy, Army Air Corps and Royal Air Force, delivering the core tasks of lift, find and attack on the battlefield supporting ground forces in the land and littoral environments.” The navy still retains sole command of its dedicated and integral Wildcats and Crowsnest Merlin. The JHC sits in the army’s organisational structure, but can be commanded and is staffed by men and women from any of the three services. The formation of the JHC, coupled with a unified training stream and a single procurement arm in Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S), has minimised any inherent inefficiencies of multiple ownership.
Increasing co-operation
But why not go the whole way and place all rotary assets under a single service, as is now largely the case for fixed-wing aircraft? The simple reason is that the units and types are so role-specific that there is minimal crossover in demand that would create tension in ownership or employment. And where joint operations are required, the JHC and Royal Navy have proved perfectly adept at operating Apache, Chinook and Merlin off the same amphibious platform in a joint operation. So the strategy has always been to make efficiencies where possible, but not to compromise operational performance or cohesion just to squeeze out every last drop of potential savings. Of course, we are seeing increasing overlap
and co-operation between the three UK services, which decades of joint operations has cultivated. One notable example is RAF F-35Bs operating seamlessly from sea and land, jointly manned and operated, with RAF and, eventually, Fleet Air Arm-badged units. Most recently – and highly significantly – even the RAF’s totemic No 617 Squadron is led by a navy commander. Undoubtedly, the UK’s helicopter units will pursue and embrace even closer integration, but not necessarily for reasons of cost savings. Rather, it is being led by the increasing requirement for maximum flexibility and, when necessary, the need to operate more closely together. In my mind, the unique skills and heavily rolespecific types will continue to make a strong
case for the diverse approach taken today. Of course, the true test often comes when resources are tight. Some may argue that soldiers and sailors will never be as predisposed to spend tight budgets on aircraft compared with airmen/airwomen. However, while this may have been true in the past, today you will struggle to find professional sailors or soldiers who don’t appreciate the value of their helicopters. So who does it best? Well, that’s a bit like asking whether a team in one sport is better than one in another. Flying a helicopter in any of the armed forces may involve common skills or techniques, but operating one in its specialist role or environment is unique and should continue to be judged as such. AFM
Above: The latest helicopter type to join the Royal Navy is the Merlin HC4/4A, a reworked former RAF HC3/3A optimised for maritime operations. This example from 845 Naval Air Squadron was one of three operating from the aircraft carrier HMS ‘Queen Elizabeth’, together with around 80 Royal Marines from Lima Company, 42 Commando. They took part in last year’s three-month WESTLANT 19 deployment. Crown Copyright Top left: An aircraft handler directs a British Army Apache AH1 on board Britain’s biggest warship during the gunship’s debut on the carrier HMS ‘Queen Elizabeth’ last year. Having already hosted Royal Navy Merlin and Wildcats and RAF Chinooks to help write the ship’s operations manual, the team on the carrier then began practising some of the routines needed to support Army Air Corps Apaches on operations. Crown Copyright Top right: Soldiers from 6 Regiment Army Air Corps prepare to hook up an underslung load to a British Army Wildcat AH1 at Middle Wallop, Hampshire. This variant is part of the Aviation Reconnaissance Force (ARF) based at Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton, Somerset, with a pool of airframes shared between the army and navy. The 6 Regiment Army Air Corps is the sole Army Reserve regiment in the Army Air Corps. Crown Copyright Left: RAF Juno HT1 (H135) helicopters from the Defence Helicopter Flying School based at RAF Shawbury, Shropshire. As part of the UK Military Flying Training System, the Juno is used for tuition of students from the RAF, Royal Navy and Army Air Corps. Crown Copyright
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Book Reviews
Seek and Strike RAF Brüggen in War and Peace
As the largest RAF station in Germany, RAF Brüggen was at the forefront of Cold War
planning; it was initially equipped with Vampires, Sabres and Hunters. It then became the ‘jewel in the crown’ of RAF Germany with the arrival of Canberras, Phantoms, Jaguars and, finally, Tornados. Such a history means there’s a wealth of previously unreported stories and anecdotes about life at the station. Author Nigel Walpole – who flew Jaguars from the base in the late 1970s – presents a detailed yet easily readable account from the earliest days of the airfield through the Cold War, when the Warsaw Pact was just a few minutes’ flying time away, and on to the 1991 Gulf War and Bosnia. As each new aircraft type arrives at the base, the author
discusses its merits, and this is interwoven with ground crew and pilot accounts of operating it. The most interesting chapters are perhaps those featuring the Jaguar and Tornado. They discuss how pilots used to single-seaters had to adapt to having a navigator in the rear of the Tornado but came to welcome the additional crew member due to the complexity of the weapons systems. Given the author’s access, it’s a real shame that the image quality is so poor. While this has kept the cover price down, there’s so much new information here that decentquality colour images would have added another level to this book. A great read on one of the RAF’s most well-known bases, now consigned to history. Glenn Sands Publisher: Pen and Sword Books Author: Nigel Walpole Pages: 356 Price: £25 ISBN: 9781526758422
Operation Eagle Claw 1980 The disastrous bid to end the Iran hostage crisis If ever there was a mission that spurred the United States to develop the spectacularly capable Special Operations Command, it was Eagle Claw. It was overly complex from the start, with all the armed services keen to play their
part in the rescue of 53 American hostages seized during the 1979 Iranian Revolution. President Carter pushed the mission ahead, despite many of the units having had little practice in operating together and at night in hostile territory. The results of the unsuccessful raid were broadcast around the world the following day, with wrecked C-130s and burnt-out RH-53D helicopters at the forward operating site known as Desert One. But the real story and planning behind the raid have been little covered until now, and neither have the operations that would have taken place in Tehran had all gone to plan. The author dives deep into the planning and rehearsals undertaken by the newly formed Delta Force, along with the activities needed to keep the whole mission hidden from the world. The nocturnal air operations
are explained in detail and, even from a layman’s viewpoint, appear overly complicated at a time when night-vision goggles were still in their infancy. This is one of the best books to date on the raid, with input from those involved and declassified documents. Also discussed is a potential follow-up raid, Credible Sport, using a highly modified rocketassisted C-130H, but that crashed during a training sortie. Although not as large as other publications on the raid, the newly declassified material means Osprey’s is probably the most detailed so far. Glenn Sands Publisher: Osprey Publishing Author: Justin W Williamson Pages: 80 Price: £13.99 ISBN: 9781472837837
These titles are available from: The Aviation Bookshop, 31-33 Vale Road, Royal Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN1 1BS, United Kingdom. Telephone: +44(0)1892 539284 Website: www.aviation-bookshop.com
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Strategic Air Command in the UK SAC Operations 1946-1992
The author of this impressively detailed tome is already known for his other Crécy titles – Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker and Spyflights and Overflights among others – and he’s lost none of his ability to present precisely detailed text, previously unpublished images, and operational charts, tables and maps. No details have been left out of the 46 years covering SAC operations, with types including the host of C-135 variants that deployed to the UK, along with SR-71s, FB-111As, B-1Bs and, of course, B-52s. Images from private and official collections support the text and deployment tables, and many of the colour photographs are in print for the first time. The countless squadrons involved in the annual rotational deployments, duration of the exercises and the types involved are also detailed. Rather than simply focusing on the bombers, chapters cover supporting types, such as the tankers, reconnaissance platforms, fighters and liaison aircraft. This book is a fascinating stroll through aviation history when the UK was an ‘unsinkable aircraft carrier’ for the USAF. Thoroughly recommended. Glenn Sands Publisher: Crécy Publishing Author: Robert S Hopkins III Pages: 224 Price: £29.95 ISBN: 9781902109565
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RNLAF F-35 training
L
Above: A mixed formation of two RNLAF and two USAF F-35As of the 308th Fighter Squadron performing a spectacular break high over Arizona in May last year. Lockheed Martin/Matt Short Right: Delivered on March 19 last year, F-35A F-005 clocked up the 500th flying hour for the NODF35’s fleet at Luke the following July 19. By then, the 308th FS had five Dutch F-35s in its inventory, with the sixth arriving the following week. Far right: Lt Col ‘Razor’ van Woerden, commanding officer of the NODF-35 and the Netherlands’ senior national representative within the 308th FS. All photos Kees van der Mark and Rob Conijn unless stated
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Dutch
From Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, Kees van der Mark reports on the training of Dutch F-35 pilots within the 308th Fighter Squadron.
Lightnings W
over Arizona
hen it comes to training its fighter pilots, the Koninklijke Luchtmacht (Royal Netherlands Air Force, RNLAF) has a longstanding relationship with the USAF. After successfully completing elementary military pilot training on PC-7 Turbo Trainers at Woensdrecht Air Base, future Dutch fighter aviators spend two years in the US. Initially they fly the T-6A and T-38C as part of a 55-week Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training (ENJJPT) programme within the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas. This is followed by a further eight weeks of T-38C flying at Sheppard on the Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF) course. Until recently, the next step would automatically be Initial Qualification Training (IQT) within the Arizona Air National Guard (ANG)’s 162nd Wing
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at Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, taking another nine months. For this purpose, the Netherlands Detachment Tucson Arizona (NDTA) is embedded in the 148th Fighter Squadron (FS) ‘Kickin’ Ass’, which has ten RNLAF-owned F-16s assigned – five F-16AMs and five F-16BMs. The RNLAF’s current transition from the F-16 to the F-35A obviously has an effect on the Dutch fighter pilot training syllabus. The RNLAF has expressed a requirement for 67 F-35As. So far, the Dutch government has committed to the acquisition of 46 jets. Soon after the majority of these were ordered in 2013, it was decided to train future RNLAF Lightning II pilots at the international Pilot Training Center (PTC) within the 56th Fighter Wing (FW) at Luke AFB. Consequently, the Nederlands Opleidingsdetachement F-35 (NODF-35, Netherlands F-35 Training Detachment) was established at Luke in the second half of 2018. The NODF-35 is integrated in the 308th FS ‘Emerald Knights’. This USAF squadron was decommissioned as an F-16 training unit at Luke on June 25, 2015, and re-established as an F-35A squadron on November 30, 2018.
Current plans foresee RNLAF F-16s continuing in frontline service until at least 2024, while the F-35 fleet is increasing by eight new jets each year. Because many experienced F-16 pilots now undergo their transition to the F-35 at Luke, there’s still a need for new F-16 pilots over the next few years. That’s why the 148th FS is continuing to train Dutch fighter pilots alongside the NODF-35 for three years, delivering its last class of F-16 pilots in 2022.
Three-nation squadron
Like most F-35 squadrons at Luke, the 308th FS is dedicated to training pilots from several nations (see boxed item). The ‘Emerald Knights’ currently operate a mix of USAF and RNLAF jets. This will eventually grow to 24 from three nations: nine American, eight Dutch and seven Danish F-35As. All US-based RNLAF aircraft rolled off Lockheed Martin’s production line at Fort Worth, Texas, while the Netherlandsbased F-35As are built at the Final Assembly and Check-Out (FACO) facility in Cameri, Italy. Of the six RNLAF F-35As delivered to Luke last year (serials F-003 to F-008, US identities 17-5302 to 17-5307), the first five arrived at the Arizona
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RNLAF F-35 training
F-35 squadrons at Luke By 2024, Luke AFB will be home to 144 F-35As flown by six active-duty squadrons within the 56th Fighter Wing (FW). So far, four of its squadrons have converted from the F-16 to the F-35. The first F-35A arrived at the Arizona base on March 10, 2014. The F-35s were initially flown by the 61st FS ‘Top Dogs’, which was reactivated as an F-35 squadron on October 27, 2013. The 61st FS has also been responsible for the training of Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F-35 pilots since late 2014. Although the training of dozens of experienced RAAF pilots – including 16 instructors – was concluded in late 2019, the 61st FS will remain involved in RAAF pilot training until No 2 Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) has also fully taken over the undergraduate pilot training (B-course) at RAAF Base Williamtown, Australia, by January 2021. For that purpose, the ‘Top Dogs’ still have five remaining RAAF F-35As in their inventory. The second squadron to convert to the F-35A was the 62nd FS ‘Spikes’, reactivated on June 5, 2015. This squadron is also responsible for training Norwegian and Italian pilots. It operates seven Royal Norwegian Air Force and two Italian Air Force F-35As alongside 15 USAF jets.
The 63rd FS ‘Panthers’ was reactivated on August 1, 2016. This is currently a US-only squadron, but it had four Turkish Air Force F-35As assigned when Turkish F-35 pilot training at Luke was halted in early June 2019. The suspension and later cancellation followed the Turkish government’s decision to go ahead with the acquisition of the Russian-built S-400 air defence system, despite warnings from the US government that this would lead to Turkey being thrown out of the F-35 programme. This eventually happened on July 17, 2019. Pending their fate, the Turkish F-35As delivered to Luke remain at the base. Reactivated on November 30, 2018, the 308th FS ‘Emerald Knights’ became the fourth F-35 squadron at Luke. It will eventually operate nine US, eight Dutch and seven Danish F-35As. Other nations that trained F-35 pilots at Luke for limited periods include Israel (2016-17; academics and simulator missions only), Japan (2016-18) and South Korea (2018-19). The latter two nations had several of their jets based at Luke, assigned to the Air Force Reserve’s 944th FW. Nations planning to train F-35 pilots at Luke in the future include Belgium (from 2023) and Poland (from 2024).
US Air Force F-35A 15-5129 ‘LF’ is assigned to the 63rd FS ‘Panthers’, one of the four squadrons within the 56th FW at Luke currently operating the Lightning II.
base between February 4 and March 19, 2019. Serial F-008 joined the 308th FS four months later – it was loaned to the 323 Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES) at Edwards AFB, California, between May 10 and July 23, 2019. This aircraft carried out a series of test flights as part of the multinational F-35 Operational Test and Evaluation (OT&E) programme at the Californian base. To be able to participate in the OT&E, the RNLAF took delivery of two early low-rate initial production (LRIP) F-35As in 2013 (F-001/095008 and F-002/10-5019). After being used for training at Eglin AFB, Florida, both joined the F-35 Integrated Test Force (ITF) at Edwards in January 2015. The two were scheduled to relocate to Luke and join the 308th FS towards the end of 2019, but due to delays in the OT&E programme, they continued to serve with the 323 TES until recently. In the end, F-001 was delivered to the 308th FS on May 21. This jet flew to Hill AFB, Utah, in the second week of June for depot-level maintenance at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex. Once this is finished, it will return to Luke permanently. Meanwhile, F-002 has been de-modified by removing the test equipment and is now at the same software standard as the rest of the RNLAF jets at Luke; it will also join the 308th FS imminently. From early next year, the first seven of 27 F-35As ordered for the Royal Danish Air Force are scheduled to join the 308th FS at Luke, with the squadron reaching its full complement of 24 jets in 2022. The first two Danish jets (L-001 and L-002) are currently on the assembly line in Fort Worth.
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The Dutch detachment
Commanding officer of the RNLAF’s NODF35 at Luke and the Netherlands’ senior national representative within the 308th FS is Lieutenant Colonel G B ‘Razor’ van Woerden. Razor flew F-16s for 15 years, mainly with 323 and 322 Squadrons at Leeuwarden Air Base. He told AFM: “We now have six RNLAF instructor pilots here at Luke, including two who recently concluded their transition and are currently going through the additional instructor course, which will be finished later this summer. In the end we will have ten Dutch instructor pilots within the 308th FS.” Among other NODF-35 personnel are two non-commissioned officers – including one ALIS (Autonomic Logistics Information System) specialist – and two maintenance officers. The latter act as Partner Maintenance Liaison officers (PMLs). “They are our ‘spiders in the web’ who maintain the necessary links with all parties involved in our F-35 operations, including the Dutch Military Aviation Authority and Defence Materiel Organisation, Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office,” the CO explained. Even when the Dutch detachment is fully staffed in the future, it will have a relatively small footprint of 14 personnel. This is not just because it is embedded in the 308th FS, as Razor explained: “We have entirely outsourced the servicing and maintenance of our jets to Lockheed Martin personnel, who do a fantastic job. For our aircraft, they deliver the highest capability rate of the entire fleet here at Luke. Of course, this has to do with the fact that our jets are relatively new, but it is also because these guys are very experienced in working with the F-35. These contractors all work with their ‘own’ jet – with three people per aircraft,
Instructor pilot Lt Col ‘Razor’ van Woerden, flying in F-008, closely monitors the student on board F-003 as the latter descends to the threshold of runway 03L at Luke during his first flight in an F-35A.
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Above: As a Level 2 partner in the F-35 programme, the Netherlands chose to train its F-35 pilots within the international Pilot Training Center (PTC) at Luke AFB in 2013, when it committed to the majority of its aircraft ordered so far. Below: F-35A F-008 takes off from Luke’s main runway, with the base’s secondary runway in the background. This aircraft was temporarily used for flights by 323 Test and Evaluation Squadron at Edwards AFB, before being delivered to Luke on July 23, 2019.
F-35A F-003 was the first RNLAF Lightning II to arrive at Luke AFB, on February 4, 2019. This jet made its first flight from Fort Worth on December 15, 2018, and had its official rollout on January 30, 2019, in a ceremony attended by many high-ranking officers, politicians and other guests from the Netherlands.
in two shifts. So, once we have all eight jets here, their group will be a little over 50 people including supervisors. In contrast to the way we work while operating our F-16s – where we have specialists for avionics, weapons and so on – these people are mainly allrounders. For us, this is a new concept, which works really well over here. The Norwegian and Australian detachments at Luke work in a similar way.” The high serviceability rate of the Dutch jets is reflected in the number of hours and missions flown since operations started on February 21 last year. The 500th flying hour by the Lukebased RNLAF F-35s was reached on July 19, 2019, followed by the 500th sortie on September 16, the 1,000th flying hour on November 14 and the 1,000th sortie on February 14, 2020. During the time the Dutch had six jets at Luke, it was not unusual to see five of them flying at the same time – or even all six, as was the case on May 12.
Transition course
When gradually building up the 308th FS after its reactivation in November 2018, the squadron initially operated under the care of sister unit, the 62nd FS. In June 2019, when a solid basis had been reached in terms of staff and aircraft, the ‘Emerald Knights’ moved over to their own brand-new squadron building. Around that time the first two RNLAF instructor pilots, including detachment commander Lt Col Van Woerden, had finished their transition course and additional instructor training. A further two Dutch pilots qualified as F-35 instructor pilots at
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the end of 2019. Meanwhile, the first operational RNLAF pilot returned to Leeuwarden in October 2019 after concluding his transition course at Luke, followed by two more in February this year and another four in late May. In June, a new class of eight Dutch students began their training with the 308th FS. They were originally scheduled to start their transition in April, but this was postponed because of COVID-19. Three of them will remain at Luke as instructors, increasing the number of pilots permanently assigned to the NODF-35 to nine by early 2021. In the week of AFM’s visit to Luke, six RNLAF pilots made their first flights in the F-35. CO Razor said: “At the moment, we mainly train pilots who have at least 500 flying hours in F-16s in the so-called Transition Course 2, or TX2. The TX2 takes about four-and-a-half months. “Like the other courses, it starts with six weeks of academics. The academic classes are combined with some 15 simulator flights, enabling the student to practise the basic skills and all emergency procedures at least once. After that it is time for the first real flight in an F-35. As an instructor you fly in chase position in a second jet, since there are no two-seat F-35s. During these flights you stay within 1,000 feet of the student, to be able to monitor closely whether the student does what you have briefed him to do and stays within the safety margins. “Every flight is usually preceded by a simulator ride. You can see the result during those first flights. Yesterday, for instance, I did not have to give that many instructions
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RNLAF F-35 training because the student had already learned what to do in the simulator. But, of course, there always remain things that you cannot do in the simulator, and the other way around.” The F-35 Academic Training Center at Luke houses 12 full-mission flight simulators. Lt Col Van Woerden explained: “The simulators are being used constantly. You can link them as well, enabling you to fly really nice missions.” Major Stefan (last name withheld on request), one of the first four qualified RNLAF instructor pilots at Luke, added: “We spend so much time in the simulator because the missions you can fly in them are very realistic. You can easily say that the simulator is virtually a one-on-one copy of an F-35, very different to what we were used to with the F-16.” The first four flights in TX2 are centred around basic skills: take-offs, landings and instrument flying. In the subsequent tactical missions the simulator also plays an important role, according to Lt Col Van Woerden: “Every type of mission is preceded by one or more tactical sim rides. We kick off with the air-to-air part, including basic fighter manoeuvres [BFM], long-distance aerial combat, air combat manoeuvres [ACM] and tactical intercepts [TI]. Next comes the airto-ground part, starting with simple surface attack missions using all available sensors. During this part of the course, the student gets a chance to release a weapon – a laser-guided GBU-12 or GPS-guided GBU-31 JDAM [Joint Direct Attack Munition] – and occasionally fire the jet’s gun as well. We then proceed to close air support [CAS] and suppression/destruction of enemy air defences [SEAD/DEAD]. The latter role is completely new and therefore rather challenging for our pilots. That is why we spend quite some sorties and simulator hours on this part of the course. Finally, we move on to offensive counter-air [OCA], flying missions that include air threats, ground threats and dynamic targets – so a combination of the sort of missions flown earlier on in the course.”
Other courses
RNLAF pilots selected to become instructor pilots within the 308th FS follow an additional course after their TX2, lasting another two-anda-half months. Razor said: “This is a demanding course. And it should be, because you need to be able to train other – often young – people to become proficient F-35 pilots. The focus in the instructor course is much more on flying and the use of the simulator, since you’ve already dealt with most of the theory during the TX2.
The instructor pilot in F-005 stays within 1,000ft of the student’s aircraft during the latter’s first flight in his transition course to the F-35. This Dutch student is flying an American F-35A of the 308th FS – the Dutch and American pilots can fly in each other’s jets.
This course includes 11 missions in which you learn to teach the student – who obviously is an instructor during your training rides.” Besides the TX and instructor courses, the 308th FS provides other training, all of which is laid down in the Combined Wingman Syllabus (CWS). The CWS is written by the USAF’s Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and is identical for student pilots from all nations. Razor said: “In August, we will start training young Dutch pilots that come straight from the ENJJPT at Sheppard. They go through the so-called B-course. Training these ab-initio pilots will take roughly twice the time needed for experienced pilots, as they need a lot more time and attention to learn the job.” Major Stefan added: “I am really curious how these young guys will perform. The Americans have already trained the first B-course students from Sheppard and the first impressions and feedback are good. But this jet is so different from the F-16, not only flying-wise. Where you often did not have the situational awareness that you wished in the F-16, you have plenty of that in the F-35. It may be challenging for someone who is not used to being overloaded with information, to learn to come up to speed in a tactical environment. On the other hand, the advantage of the current generation of young people is that they grew up in a world that is very different from when we were young: they already have that high-tech mindset. Still, the F-35 is so much more advanced than the F-16.” Lt Col Van Woerden said: “Last but not least, we offer short transition courses for those who will be qualified to fly the F-35, but not – or only partially – in tactical missions. Our air force decided that we will be offering a mix
of all the different courses. A TX2 takes more time than a short TX, but less than a B-course. So the annual output we can deliver depends on the demands for the different courses.”
Software versions
“The new tool in the toolbox” is how instructor pilot Stefan describes the F-35, adding: “Because we operate here under the wings of our bigger American brother, we are very close to where it all happens. The possibilities of this jet are incredible, even though we are still in a phase where it does not yet do 100% of what it is supposed to do. But the aircraft is continuously subject to further improvements, enabling it to perform exactly as advertised in the longer run.” The F-35’s software gets an upgrade every six months. Meanwhile, the software version with full warfighting capability known as Block 3F has been developed further. Razor told AFM: “Our current software version is Block 30, production tape 04, iteration 012 – or simply 30P04.012. The main difference compared to version 30P02.04 we had before is the addition of an automatic ground-collision avoidance system or AGCAS, which was already fitted to newer versions of US Air Force F-16s and now also to the F-35. We expect to convert to software version 30P04.52 later this summer, and to 30P05 at the end of this year. Furthermore, we started flying with the CATM-9X-II – the captive air training missile version of the AIM-9X Block II air-to-air missile – on wing-tip-mounted pylons in early June. We are the first international partner at Luke to do so.” Looking further ahead, Lt Col Van Woerden said: “We will soon have all eight Dutch jets in the squadron, enabling us to take up the required number of training slots for Dutch pilots, which is related to the number of aircraft we supply. I expect that we will keep operating eight RNLAF F-35s within the 308th FS for the foreseeable future. That allows us to adapt to the RNLAF’s dynamic demand for pilots, which will only increase because we will get more F-35s than the 37 jets previously foreseen. All in all, I think it would be good if we continue training our pilots here at Luke for many years to come.” AFM
Acknowledgements
A crew chief signals the pilot of a Dutch F-35A to start taxiing. Unlike the USAF F-35As of the 308th FS, servicing and maintenance of the RNLAF jets is conducted by Lockheed Martin personnel, hence the civilian clothing.
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Thanks to Lt Col G B ‘Razor’ van Woerden, Major Stefan and others at NODF-35/308th FS, as well as RNLAF PAO Maj Wendy Ryan and the PAO personnel at Luke AFB for their assistance in preparing this article.
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03/07/2020 15:45:46
Wings of Gold US Navy pilot training
The US Navy runs a mammoth flight training operation to support its operational units as well as those of the US Marine Corps and US Coast Guard, as Dick Wels and Hans Drost discover on visits to Naval Air Station Whiting Field, Florida and NAS Meridian, Mississippi.
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Above: After a quick ‘gas and go’, the crew of this T-45C is ready for the second leg of its training flight. Below: A US Navy T-45C Goshawk assigned to VT-7 ‘Eagles’ touches down on the Meridian runway. Training Squadron Seven (VT-7) arrived at Meridian on July 12, 1961, then split on December 15 to form its sister squadron, Training Squadron Nine (VT-9). US Navy
T
he release of a new Top Gun movie later this year is likely to interest young school leavers to become pilots. The US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are all attractive employers and with around 3,500 aircraft and helicopters, there is a high demand. Naval aviators begin their flying training at a number of locations, but NAS Whiting Field, Florida, and NAS Meridian, Mississippi, are key sites on the path to receiving the coveted naval ‘Wings of Gold’. Whiting Field is one of the two naval air stations where Primary Flight Training is completed. The base is situated around an hour’s drive northeast of Pensacola, near the city of Milton. It is considered to be the world’s busiest airport and it combines both fixed-wing T-6 Texan II schooling as well as rotary training with the TH-57 Sea Ranger. It’s a constant flow of flying, with around 200 T-6 and 220 TH-57 flights each day. Despite the intensity, noise complaints here are rare. Julie Ziegenhorn, the base public affairs officer (PAO), told AFM: “This is a very rural area; the people living here are very military-minded.” Whiting Field is divided into two separate airfields with the North Field used for T-6 fixedwing training and the South Field for helicopters. Each has two fully operational runways and its own dedicated control tower. It’s a perfect location for learning to fly – the Gulf of Mexico is a stone’s throw away and there are no fewer than 12 outlying landing fields. Five of these are exclusively utilised for helicopter training; the others are employed for T-6 and one field – Outlying Landing Field Choctaw – is dual use for both helicopter and fixed-wing training.
Primary Flight Training
Before student naval aviators arrive at Whiting Field, they have all been through Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API) at nearby Pensacola, which is the first step in US Navy aviation. LCDR Jeff Hogan, the assistant operations officer at Whiting Field’s Training Air Wing 5 (TAW-5) explained: “It’s about six weeks of training where they do basic aviation stuff – survival, weather, navigation – in academic classes. After successful completion, the students will go to NAS Corpus Christi, Texas, or they will come to us and get assigned to one of our three training squadrons. Some 60% of all US Navy aviators do their primary training here. TAW-5 also trains aviators for the Coast Guard, Marine Corps and some foreign nations. We’ve
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had students from a wide range of countries, including Mexico, India, France, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Saudi Arabia. The reason they come to us is simple – and it is not to pat ourselves on the back – but we probably have the best training in the world. The French, for example, send only the top one or two guys from initial screening to this programme. We also train them in English proficiency. So they get the shared experience and the knowledge of how a partner nation is performing the training as well.” On a yearly basis around 600 students successfully complete their primary flight training at Whiting Field and the graduation rate is approximately 94%. The three training squadrons at NAS Whiting Field North fly the T-6; they are VT-2 ‘Doerbirds’, VT-3 ‘Red Knights’ and VT-6 ‘Shooters’. The first T-6 was delivered to TAW-5 on August 27, 2009 as it started to replace the T-34 Mentor. This transition was completed on April 19, 2012, when the final student training flight was made in a T-34. TAW-5 currently includes 148 T-6s, all shared between the squadrons as a pooled asset. Whether the students are destined for the F/A-18E/F, F-35, MV-22, P-8 or MH-60, the fixed-wing syllabus kicks off with the T-6, as LCDR Hogan outlined: “The training takes just under 28 weeks and starts with an indoctrination programme followed by ground school, learning about aircraft systems and emergency procedures… That whole process takes about a month of ground school before the students even get into a simulator device. [Next] they start doing cockpit procedure training in the simulator, such as how do I get this thing started, how does a checklist work, what kind of flow is going on between a student and an instructor?” It takes about six weeks from beginning the syllabus to starting to work inside an aircraft. This is the contact part of the syllabus, as Hogan explained: “Basic contact flights, the basic fundamentals of flying, like how do I do power on and power off, stalls, how do I operate in the landing pattern, how do I talk on the radio? They will have 12 flights in the early contact syllabus. From flight one to flight 12 they are learning everything they need to do to be able to solo the aircraft. At the end of that part they will do a check ride and get cleared safe for solo. They’ll go out and do some of their high work there – stalls and that kind of stuff. Then they’re going down in the landing pattern on the outlying fields, do some touch and goes, come back home and land safely; they have soloed the aircraft.” Following these dozen flights, the students head back to the simulators for more instrument training. Hogan said: “Then for the most part they will go into an aerobatic syllabus. That is fairly compressed, but it teaches air sense, basically how to manoeuvre the aircraft a little more dynamically. There are only four flights in that, another check ride and then they will do an aerobatic solo: here are the keys to the plane, go out to the area, fly around, do some loops and barrel rolls. From there, people will transition into a formation syllabus, which again is a kind of introduction of what formation flying is like and how we do it. Basically, what it’s like to work with a wingman. This syllabus consists of four flights as well. The students will finish that and then they go into a more intensive instrument training syllabus. In the simulators
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US Navy pilot training they learn more advanced instrument flying procedures. Dealing with air traffic control, conducting holding and approaches, point-topoint navigation, and doing everything from radio navigation to GPS and flight management system. They also train on both precision and non-precision approaches. There are 12 total flights in that syllabus. At the very end there is a little bit of day and night navigation work, so VFR [visual flight rules] flying using a chart and using the ground to decide where you are and where are you trying to get to. They do those to cap off the syllabus.” After 47 flights and 36 simulator events, the fledgling aviators will be ready for the next step in their education, either helicopters, maritime patrol or jets. Hogan explained the selection process: “You see all brands of students going through primary. We get them and ask: ‘Hey, what do you want to fly? What are you interested in?’ The answer might be: ‘I want to be a jet pilot, because that’s a cool thing to do.’ Other guys have their heart set on something else: ‘Hey, my dad flew helicopters.’ When they get towards the end of the syllabus in primary, they go through a selection process where we calculate their grades and come up with the naval standard score. They have to meet certain thresholds to go to jet/strike or whatever else. But you can have a very high performing student who wants to fly helicopters.” If they’re the best in the class they will be assigned rotary, even if they meet the jet grades. “But there is always a balance between student preferences and the needs of the navy,” Hogan said.
Rotary training at Whiting Field For those going on to helicopters, a stint at South Whiting Field awaits. It’s the only place in the US where helicopter pilots from the navy, marines and coast guard are trained. South Whiting Field is only a few minutes by car from the North Field, but although the actual distance is minimal, the experience at the base is very different. There are TH-57s as far as the eye can see! South Whiting houses three helicopter training squadrons: HT-8 ‘Eightballers’, HT-18 ‘Vigilant
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Training Air Wing Five at NAS Whiting Field North has 148 T-6 aircraft in its inventory.
Eagles’ and HT-28 ‘Hellions’. They all use the TH-57B/C Sea Ranger – a derivative of the commercial Bell 206 JetRanger. The Sea Ranger has been in use since 1983 when it started to replace the UH-1 and right now TAW-5 owns 113 examples. From 2023, a new training helicopter will start arriving in the shape of the TH-73. One of the instructor pilots told AFM: “The commodore and deputy had their inputs on it, but ultimately it is the choice of the navy. It’s a balance between what the navy wants and what we need, what the trainer would be able to do, what the aircraft companies are offering and what’s in the budget. It’s a whole balancing act between all of those things. And with the helicopter comes a new syllabus. It’s not like we are getting a new helicopter and you are just implementing it and go. The framework will stay the same; it will just be an updated aircraft, which, as I am assuming, has more advanced technology going with it compared to the helicopters we have right now that are from the 1970s. So, that will be the big difference in the new syllabus.” The US Navy announced the selection of Leonardo’s AW119 helicopter as the winner of the service’s Advanced Helicopter Training System (AHTS) competition on January 13, 2020. The TH-73A will fulfil advanced rotary
wing and intermediate tiltrotor training requirements for the US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard until 2050. Phaseout of the TH-57 will begin in 2022 and conclude in 2024 when the last examples are retired. The navy expects to acquire a fleet of 130 TH-73As at a cost of US$648m. The TH-57 syllabus takes 29 weeks. Just like on the fixed-wing side, the use of simulators is important and there are currently 37 such events. In February 2019, TAW-5 received the first of ten new simulators to replace the antiquated existing examples. The instructor explained: “The syllabus is kind of similar as with the T-6. Same concept, where you have ground school: you learn systems and aerodynamics again, because the aerodynamics of a helicopter are significantly different than those of a fixed-wing plane. Then you go through some sims again, learning how to do the checklist and then the same thing: you go through a contact phase, learning how to hover, learning how to auto rotate if your engine fails, going through emergencies and checklists, and the basics of flying. Once you managed that, you do something we call the ‘brolo’, because you don’t actually solo a helicopter. You go out with another student who went through that same syllabus and these guys do a solo event
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Beechcraft’s T-6 Texan II is based on the Pilatus PC-9. It’s powered by the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-68 turboprop engine, which delivers 1,100shp. At NAS Whiting Field, maintenance on the aircraft is performed by civilian contractors.
together. So solo in terms that you’re with a student, but you’re not physically solo. Then students go to a tactics phase, where they learn how to do confined area landings.” Another feature at an outlying field is the pinnacle, a raised surface where students practice landing. They will also carry external loads, which concludes the basic work before moving to the TH-57C. “The Bravo is not instrument rated. They’ll go through another classroom portion, learn about instruments in the helicopter and how to fly it. Then they go through a basic instrument phase, which is really about building a scan. After that comes a radio navigation phase that is actually navigating the airways, doing approaches. They get their instrument rating here, which they didn’t get in primary, which is building your instrument foundation. We do another formation syllabus and they do goggles – so night-vision devices and learning night flying on goggles – a navigation portion, a ship-boarding and a search and rescue. And then they are finally done.” There is a graduation rate of 90% and yearly more than 500 students become naval aviators and receive their ‘Wings of Gold’. LCDR Hogan concluded: “Naval Aviation is cool, but it is also a very skilled enterprise and it takes a lot of support from not just the people that
fly it and the people that teach people how to fly it, but also from the maintainers that keep the aircraft safely in the air and the approach controllers that talk to us on the radio and the rest of the leadership that’s providing the resources for us to do that.”
Mastering jets at Meridian
A four-hour drive through the rolling hillside and pine forests of Alabama leads from Whiting Field to the border of Mississippi. From there it is only 15 minutes to reach the city of Meridian and the naval air station is situated another 20 minutes northeast of the town. NAS Meridian is the home of Training Air Wing One and has been a training base since opening in 1961. It has two training squadrons: VT-7 ‘Eagles’ and VT-9 ‘Tigers’. VT-7 was established in July 1960 at the former NAS Memphis, Tennessee and relocated to NAS Meridian a year later. In December 1961 it split to form a sister squadron: VT-9. Both units have been at Meridian ever since. Together with VT-21 and VT-22 at NAS Kingsville, Texas, VT-7 and VT-9 train all the US Navy’s future fighter aviators. “We have more than 90 students in our squadron and that is the same for the other squadrons. In Meridian around 120 students graduate and earn their ‘Wings of Gold’ each
Above: All helicopter crews for the US Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard are trained in the TH-57B/C Sea Ranger. The single-letter tail code identifies the aircraft’s training wing – in this case, ‘E’ for TAW-5. Left: Incoming and outgoing. NAS Whiting Field South literally crawls with TH-57 Sea Rangers. After a training ride, the crews head back to the office for a debrief.
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year, and that includes some French, British and Italian students,” LCDR Lance Benson, instructor and former Blue Angels pilot at VT-7 remarked. All students in the fighter syllabus are trained in the T-45 Goshawk, of which the US Navy is the only operator. The original T-45A, which became operational in 1991, featured an analogue cockpit, while the newer C-version, which was first delivered in December 1997, incorporates a new digital cockpit design. All Goshawks currently in operational use have been upgraded to T-45C standard. The T-45 is to remain in service until 2035 or later. On May 14 the navy published a request for information (RFI) for a new trainer, the Undergraduate Jet Training System (UJTS), to replace most of the T-45s with an existing type; unlike the T-45, it won’t be required to be capable of full carrier operations. Today, the US Navy has approximately 200 T-45s in service, equally divided between NAS Kingsville and Meridian. LTJG Ally Strachan, a Maine resident, was around six months into the course when AFM spoke to her. She explained how she ended up in the jet fighter pipeline: “I grew up in a military family. My father is a retired senior chief, a maintenance guy on the P-3, but he never told me to be in the navy. I just grew up around it, went to some airshows, but I never really thought too much about it. In high school I had to make decisions about college and I didn’t know what I wanted to do, so I basically decided I want to be like my dad and I chose a career in the military. I joined up and I spent some time on a ship, but still not knowing what I exactly wanted. At some point I met some pilots and they were so happy and so professional. They seemed to have a challenging job, a high quality of life and it seemed very rewarding. And I couldn’t believe it: being on a ship and being a pilot were both options for me. It seemed like a no-brainer at that point. I decided that aviation was for me, but I needed a mentor to explore different options before I made a decision, so I had helicopter mentors and ‘big wing’ mentors, like in Jacksonville. But then I met a female jet pilot at my college and there was no one like her. Not only because she is a wonderful person, but also because there were no female jet pilots anywhere. She was one of the first and she had gotten back to college for a short tour and I started meeting with her every week. And once again I couldn’t believe that being like her was an option, so then I decided that I wanted jets!” Before the moment of selection for the
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US Navy pilot training different pipelines, LTJG Strachan first had to complete her six months of Primary Flight Training at Corpus Christi, Texas. She explained: “Looking back at that time, it was more stressful than my time here. I had my mind set on jets, but you always know that you might not get your first choice. Although in primary your classmates are your friends and although they are good people, it is a very competitive world. They are not looking out for themselves necessarily, but everybody is doing their best, because being the best of your class gives you the best opportunity to get your first choice of pipeline.” LTJG Strachan remembers well the moment she found out she had clinched her first choice. “I will probably never forget the moment I heard about being selected for this pipeline. At the end of primary, our commanding officer brought us all in. There were only seven people that week, four males and three females. The commander knew I wanted jets and he started out with ‘I’m so sorry, you’ll have to move to Whiting’, and then after a pause he followed with ‘Just kiddin’, you are going to Meridian’. Because of the stress, I started crying. Out of the seven people that were there that day, I was the only one going to this pipeline. The other two females went to Whiting for the helicopter pipeline. Actually, I was the first female jet pilot that the squadron has had in two years.” Penny Randall, NAS Meridian’s PAO added: “We get female students every now and then, but it is still rare. At this moment there are six female students in VT-9 and four in VT-7. We only have one female instructor, in addition to our executive officer in VT-9 and next year she will become the commanding officer of VT-9. She will be the first female squadron CO this base has ever had.” LTJG Strachan continued: “Although I am one of the few women around here, I feel that I’m in my place. I played boys’ hockey until I was in high school, from five until I was about 14, and that really helped me, because I played with guys in a team and worked with them. There were no women locker rooms and I got dressed in the janitor’s closet, so I knew what it was like to operate in a place where there are fewer facilities for me
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and still be a team member. I think this helps me now, because I know how to be a team member and still be a female.”
Drop-out percentage
In the jet syllabus, students fly approximately 160 hours in the T-45C of which nearly 40 hours are solo. They will also spend approximately 96 hours in simulators before completing the syllabus. “The step from the T-6 to the T-45 is huge,” according to LTJG Strachan. “People warned me about it and said that it is going to be different. They said it was going to be really fast and that you are not going to be ready. I thought they were being dramatic. It can’t be that different! But they were right. All the stuff felt so heavy and then you have to get in to do the flying. And it is so different. You go so much faster; you’ve got to think faster. I never felt so slow, but I’m starting to get used to it. It’s absolutely the most challenging thing I’ve done yet. And it is also physically more demanding. Maybe it’s not like you’re pulling on very big weights or running miles and miles, but for me, wearing all the gear is hard to overcome. Even though I grew up in ice hockey and I’m used to wearing a helmet, a cage, lots of gear, it is still hard.” Before explaining the syllabus, LCDR Benson
addressed the drop-out percentage. “We have a very low drop-out percentage. That’s not strange if you think about it. The students have already gone through primary in the T-6 and they did very well there, or they wouldn’t have shown up here. As long as it’s not a personality-based reason, as long as they are working hard and are putting forth the effort, our squadron skipper and the commodore who is in charge of both of our skippers, are doing a really good job trying to keep them in. The navy has spent a lot of money on them to this point, so if it really doesn’t work on our platform, they will try to get them reallocated to different platforms or different pipelines. So far, we have had a lot of success. We had one student going to helicopters and a couple went to the P-8. So, it is not that the navy is necessarily losing them. This pipeline is losing them, but in general the US Navy is able to keep those guys. But normally these guys are very self-motivated and ready to work on a team.”
Jet syllabus
“The jet syllabus is essentially broken in two halves,” Benson continued. “If you go back quite a few years you would have heard the terms primary – now done with the T-6 – intermediate and advanced. You can almost
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Above: Aviation training, old and new. The students of Training Air Wing One regularly visit Meridian Regional Airport, which used to house the famous Key Brothers’ flying school. The old hangar and offices are still present. Left: A mix of US Navy and Marine Corps T-45C Goshawks from VT-9 ‘Tigers’ awaiting the return of their crews for the next flight through the Mississippi skies. All photos Dick Wels and Hans Drost unless stated
see Phase 1 as the intermediate portion and Phase 2 as the advanced portion. When the students show up, the initial syllabus is once again teaching them the basics, just as in the T-6, so that is the focus of those basic building blocks. Once they complete Phase 1, which takes about half the time they are here, they move on to Phase 2. That phase is more of the advanced stuff – they will learn the building blocks for the next aircraft they are going to be flying when they get to the fleet, although it is not super-tactical. It’s just the basics of what they need to know. We will teach them to manoeuvre a mile apart from each other and keep two guys together while they are not right next to each other. We teach them how to drop weapons. For that we take them out to the desert. We actually have a range here north of the field in between Columbus, Mississippi and us. There is an air-to-surface range where we drop some Mark 76s, which are blue practice bombs, and then they get the ballistic profiles of an actual weapon and we do some air combat manoeuvring throughout the syllabus. We also do low-level navigation, so they have multiple types of low-level routines. Operational Navigation, or ONAV, is the name of that part of the syllabus, which is essentially a single ship navigating at 500 feet. So, they’ll
start by themselves as a single-ship, trying to find targets. It is fun because it is a little bit of everything, operating at these speeds and altitudes before they get to whatever platform they will be flying. They will mainly go to the Super Hornet or the Growler, and now we got some guys going to the F-35 as well.”
Going to the boat
Another interesting part of the training are the carrier deck landings, Benson said. “There is a minimum touch-and-go requirement we have for field passes; it is around 350. Only afterwards we take them out to the boat, but we only do that in daytime and with good weather. And we also need deck-space. Usually, if a boat is going out to do some operations, the RAGs [fleet replacement squadrons, formerly known as replacement air groups] and the training commands will get an opportunity and they’ll send everybody out at the same time to join them and do their thing. So, when there is deck space available and the ship is moving, everybody can go out there and do their training. We get the backside of that almost every time for the T-45 guys. We are kind of the last ones to go out, but everybody will get their passes and hopefully pass first time. For some of the students it’s the last thing they’ll do during this syllabus; other students have to complete
one or two more parts. After completing this syllabus the students receive their ‘Wings of Gold’ and report to their fleet replacement squadron.”
Being the best
When the students are in their operational squadron, the learning continues, LCDR Benson emphasised. “Remember that whether you are going to pursue military or civilian aviation or commercial aviation, if you are as passionate about it as these students are, you are going to be successful in whatever you do. To be honest, everybody who finds a love for aviation, they will find their niche. From experience, having done some pretty cool stuff myself, even I am excited to listen to stories. There is always cool stuff to learn when you keep your mind open and you are always a student of aviation. Even though you may be very experienced, there is always going to be something new to learn that may save your life someday. It is a fun business to be in, that’s for sure.”
Acknowledgements Thanks to everyone who made this article possible, especially Julie Ziegenhorn, PAO at NAS Whiting Field, and Penny Randall, PAO at NAS Meridian.
AFM
Above: LTJG Ally Strachan was around six months into the Meridian course at the time of AFM’s visit. Right: LCDR Lance Benson is an instructor with VT-7 and a former Blue Angels pilot, selected for the US Navy’s flight demonstration squadron in 2016. Left: Flying the T-45 can be great fun for students and instructor pilots alike. The instructors also frequently take the aircraft for a spin to keep up their skills.
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Back from t In the last few years, the Argentine Air Force has faced serious challenges in maintaining its diverse fleet. Horacio J Clariá investigates how the service has tackled continuous budget cuts and a lack of funding for future acquisitions.
D
espite many problems, the Fuerza Aérea Argentina (FAA, Argentine Air Force) has successfully renewed its training fleet. On the other hand, it still faces major hurdles in securing a modern fighter and a new medium transport. However, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be focusing the government’s attention on the need to restore and expand the FAA’s logistics capabilities. Since the late 1990s, the FAA has been in the process of downsizing its fleet and personnel in accordance with available budgets. With the country immersed in a permanent economic crisis for the last 20 years, successive governments have assigned a low priority to the armed forces. During this period, important aircraft types have been withdrawn from service without proper replacement, reducing overall capabilities. Meanwhile, the
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FAA’s strategy has emphasised the training of personnel to maximise exploitation of available flight hours. FAA participation in different multinational combined exercises such as Águila I and II (with the USAF in 1998 and 2001) and Ceibo 2005 in Argentina, CRUZEX in Brazil (2002, 2004 and 2006) and Salitre in Chile (2004, 2009 and 2014) has helped introduce standardised procedures and NATO phraseology during air operations, among others. More recently, during CRUZEX 2008, 2010 and 2012, the ‘war games’ software was provided by the FAA’s Centro de Simulación y Juegos de Guerra (Simulation and War Games Centre), reflecting the significant developments in this area. Despite the downsizing process affecting serviceable aircraft, the FAA has not closed any air bases and has maintained its structure.
Maintenance centres
The Dirección General de Material in Buenos Aires encompasses all the administrative and logistical elements needed to support the FAA’s operational activities. It comprises three major maintenance centres located in Quilmes, Río Cuarto and Córdoba. Área Material Quilmes (ARMAQUIL) focuses on major overhaul of helicopters (Bell 212/412, Hughes 500), Twin Otters, engines, propellers and avionics/flight instruments. This plant has been certified by Viking Air to perform a modernisation programme for the Twin Otter fleet; the first example was upgraded in Canada in 2009, followed by four more in Quilmes. Área Material Río Cuarto (ARMACUAR) is the major maintenance facility for combat aircraft. Historically, all A-4B/C,
Mirage III/5/Finger, MS.760A, F-86 and Canberra aircraft were overhauled here. The avionics upgrade that brought the Dagger A fleet to Finger IIIB standard took place at ARMACUAR (from 1985-89), as well as enhancement of the Mirage 5A Mara fleet (ex-Peruvian Mirage 5Ps acquired in 1982 and modernised in 198889). Nowadays, work focuses on the OA/A-4AR Fightinghawk, IA-63 Pampa II, EMB-312 Tucano, Cessna 182 and PA-28 Dakota. Two specialist organisations are incorporated within ARMACUAR. The Centro de Ensayos de Armamento y Sistemas Operativos (CEASO, Weapons and Operating Systems Test Centre) is responsible for weapons trials and development (some in co-operation with private industry). Currently, no specific aircraft are assigned, but it flew a single Mirage IIICJ until 2005.
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m the brink?
The Centro de Investigación de Tecnologías Aeronáuticas (CITeA, Aeronautical Technologies Research Centre) is responsible for analysis, evaluation, acceptance testing, definition and technical specifications of modifications, plus improvements and/or changes to be introduced in aeronautical digital systems. It also carries out development of software and hardware embedded in different aerospace technologies. Since the introduction of the A-4AR from 1997, it has regularly upgraded the jet’s mission computer software, providing the FAA with technological independence. The Centro de Ensayos en Vuelo (CEV, Flight Test Centre) is located within FAdeA ‘Brigadier San Martín’ (Fábrica Argentina de Aviones, the former Lockheed Martin Argentina, previously FMA) facilities in Córdoba. The CEV was responsible for the first flights and certification of
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Above: Single-seat A-4AR serial C-933 (c/n 14424, ex 159483) from Grupo 5 de Caza tops up from the tanker. As well as providing practice for the Fightinghawks, the FAA’s two KC-130Hs also conducted aerial refuelling training with A-37Bs from the Uruguayan Air Force during Exercise Tanque. Top: A flight of EMB-312A Tucanos from Grupo 3 de Ataque at Reconquista. After the Pucará squadron was disbanded in December 2019, the Tucano operator became the only combat unit based in the north of the country, close to the ‘hot zone’ – the tripartite frontier between Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil. It’s here that the majority of drug/human trafficking and smuggling flights take place. All photos Horacio J Clariá
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IA-63 Pampa II serial E-803 (c/n 1008) from Grupo 6 de Caza climbs over the foothills of the Andes. The air force plans to continue upgrading its Pampa II fleet to Pampa III standard; the sixth of these was handed over to the VI Brigada Aérea at Tandil in March and the Pampa II has now returned to its training role at Mendoza.
the indigenous IA-58 Pucará and IA-63 Pampa and the flight tests of different systems and weapons introduced to a wide variety of aircraft. Its fleet comprises the IA-58H Pucará Fénix prototype (serial OVX-501, formerly AX-561) and the IA-63 Pampa III prototype (serial EX-03), both currently performing test campaigns. Two veteran B45 Mentors (serials EX-034 and 086) and a single Cessna 180F (serial PG-394) also perform avionics trials and utility tasks. The Comando de Alistamiento y Adiestramiento (CAA, Enlisting and Training Command) is tasked with the operational organisation, training, evaluation and instruction functions of the operational units. To do so, it administers the Brigadas Aéreas (air brigades) and Bases Aéreas Militares (BAM, military air bases) to which aerospace materiel is allocated. Each brigade comprises three Grupos (groups): a Grupo Aéreo (air group) to which flying squadrons are assigned, a Grupo Técnico (technical group)
responsible for aircraft maintenance (primary and intermediate levels), and a Grupo Base (base group) responsible for installations and security of the air base. A BAM is a lower-ranked unit with an organisation similar to a brigade. The Dirección General de Educación (DGEduc, Education General Direction) is responsible for the military schools for pilots and ground crew, as well as other training facilities for administrative personnel. The Escuela de Aviación Militar (EAM, Military Aviation School) is the academy for the FAA’s officers, located in Córdoba. The selected students – called cadets – begin a four-year course of increasing difficulty, with those that succeed graduating with the rank of Alferez (second lieutenant). Those with the best average become part of the Cuerpo del Aire (Air Corps) and are assigned to the Grupo Aéreo Escuela (GAE) to attend the flying course – the Curso Básico Conjunto de Aviador Militar (CBCAM, Military Aviator Joint Basic Course).
Combat aviation
Following the withdrawal of the last Mirage IIIEA/Finger/Mirage 5A Mara jets in November 2015, the OA/A-4AR remains the only fighter in FAA service. A total of 36 were originally taken on strength between 1997 and 2000, operated by Grupo 5 de Caza (V Brigada Aérea) at Villa Reynolds. During its career, the Fightinghawk has suffered from logistical and maintenance issues, affecting its operational performance and availability. Additional funding has been assigned to the A-4AR fleet since the G20 presidential summit that took place in Buenos Aires in 2018, increasing the number of serviceable examples; the FAA plans to continue this effort to achieve ten to 12 aircraft by 202021. This decision is also related to the fact that negotiations begun in 2016 for the acquisition of ten FA-50 Golden Eagles hit a dead end after the presidential election introduced a new ruling party in October 2019. On the other
Originally delivered in May 1969, KC-130H serial TC-69 (c/n 4814) cruises over the coast, with Buenos Aires in the background. This is one of four FAA Hercules to have undergone an avionics upgrade and has also received a FLIR system under the nose.
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hand, the French government recently made another offer of Mirage 2000s (version, quantities and costs remain undisclosed). Neither the defence ministry nor the FAA has yet made any official statement about this proposal. Last December 18, IA-58A Pucará serial A-568 performed the last flight of this enigmatic close air support aircraft. In service since 1975, the final operational examples were grounded and preserved pending a new chapter in their career. Currently, the IA-58H Pucará Fénix prototype is completing its Pratt & Whitney PT6A-62 certification/ homologation process. In 2021, six to eight IA-58As are expected to start receiving the same upgrade (including a general overhaul and life extension) to perform a new role: intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). The FAA is also pursuing a cockpit standardisation, aligning the Pucará with the Pampa III. The FAA plans to keep this new version of the Pucará in the air for a further 15 to 20 years. Withdrawal of the Mirage family left the FAA without a supersonic interception capability. A stopgap solution to keep their home base – the VI Brigada Aérea at Tandil – open was the deployment of a batch of IA-63 Pampa II advanced trainer/light attack aircraft from the IV Brigada Aérea at Mendoza by late 2015. At the beginning of 2019, the newly upgraded Pampa III version began to be delivered to Grupo 6 de Caza, restoring the Pampa II to Mendoza. Last March, the sixth example (serial A-705) was handed over, with two more scheduled to be delivered by the end of the year or the beginning of 2021. FAdeA is also seeking to sign a contract with the defence ministry for an additional ten Pampa IIIs, producing two to three units annually until 2024. Introduced from 2017, the T-6C+ replaced the EMB-312A Tucano in the training role with the EAM at Córdoba. The Tucano fleet was reassigned to Grupo 3 de Ataque (III Brigada Aérea) at Reconquista. After finishing their last CBCAM course by May 2018, the first five machines flew to their new home base on June 26 that year, ending an important chapter in the EAM’s history, which included training more than 870 pilots. A total of 15 Tucanos were transferred to Reconquista, survivors from the 30 received from 1987. Today, the
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A trio of T-6C+ Texan IIs up from the Escuela de Aviación Militar at Córdoba, where they are assigned to Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea III. Deliveries were completed last December, and a Texan II flight simulator is currently being installed at the base.
Tucano’s main task is border patrol and surveillance. The Dirección General de Investigación y Desarrollo (DGID, Investigation and Development General Direction) and DGM are developing a gun pod – for 12.7mm and 7.62mm machine guns – that will be carried under the Tucano’s wings in future. An upgrade project that will include new avionics and a glass cockpit is on the agenda for 2021.
Transport and support The FAA’s logistics fleet is facing unprecedented demand. Since the beginning of the year, the COVID19 pandemic has revealed that more transport aircraft are required to meet central government requests to assist the effort against the virus. The scenario and plans envisaged by the FAA at the end of 2019 have now changed drastically. At the end of last year, the C295 was seen as the only replacement for the F27 fleet, which had been disbanded in 2016, although no funding had
yet been allocated. On the other hand, the last active F28 Mk1000C (serial TC-53) was scheduled to be retired by October 2019 but, two months earlier, cracks were detected on its wings during a routine inspection. With no aircraft in service, the Escuadrón II F28 faced disbandment. After analysing the situation and concluding there was no budget for purchasing new machines, the FAA turned its attention to F28 serial TC-52. This aircraft was no longer airworthy, having been grounded and preserved since September 2018 awaiting a 2C inspection that never started (bearing in mind programmed withdrawal of the type the following year). After four months of frenetic work in Palomar’s hangars, the Grupo Técnico 1 technicians and a team from FAdeA conducted the inspection in record time, returning the jet to service on February 4, 2020. The FAA then began to study the possibility of refurbishing another F28 (serial
F28 Mk1000C serial TC-55 (c/n 11024) has been grounded since 2017, but the latest developments within the transport fleet mean it’s now a candidate for a return to service, following refurbishment.
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A two-ship reveals different colour schemes applied to the Grupo Aéreo 2 Learjet 35A fleet. Leading the formation is grey-painted serial T-22 (c/n 35A-136), followed by the more colourful T-26 (c/n 35A-369, ex T-24) that was written off after a bird strike last December.
TC-55 or TC-54, both grounded since 2017) and repairing TC-53. Last April, the defence ministry allocated funding for acquisition of at least one secondhand 737700 medium-range transport. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the need to restore the FAA’s strategic transport capability, strengthening the government’s response capacity. The FAA lost its long-range transport ability in 2006 when the last 707-387B was withdrawn from service. During the COVID19 crisis, the government has had to use commercial jets from national airlines to bring medical supplies from China and repatriate Argentinian citizens from Europe, North America and neighbouring countries. Moreover, the efforts of the C-130 fleet and the sole F28 are not enough to cope with the logistical requirements demanded by the pandemic. Therefore, F27 serial TC-79 – the last of its type, grounded and preserved since September 2016 – has begun an overhaul for a planned return to service by the end of the year. If these efforts (undertaken at
Paraná by the Grupo Técnico 2/ II Brigada Aérea) prove a success, another example (serial TC-75) will follow. The story of the FAA’s Dutch transport fleet – which should have ended in 2019 – has seen an interesting change in fortunes. The C-130 fleet continues its upgrade and life-extension programme. Currently, four machines (serials TC-69, 70, 61 and 66 – the last of these redelivered on May 6) have received a new fullglass cockpit among other avionics and improvements, including the addition of a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) system under the nose (only in the KC-130H tanker version, TC-69 and 70). Two more examples will follow: serial TC-64 should be redelivered next year, followed by the unique L-100-30 (TC-100) in 2022. The Hercules is the workhorse of the FAA’s transport fleet, equipping Escuadrón I Transporte Aéreo at Palomar that flies the remainder of 16 aircraft (three C-130Es, five C-130Hs, one L-100-30 and five C-130Bs) that entered service from 1968. The two KC-130Hs are periodically used for air-toair refuelling training with the
A-4AR. The C-130 is also essential for each Campaña Antártica de Verano (CAV, Summer Antarctic Campaign), taking place between December and March, when the Hercules creates a cargo air bridge between BAM Río Gallegos on the mainland and Base Marambio at Seymour Island, on the east of the Antarctic peninsula. For CAV missions, the Hercules carry base personnel, scientists and their equipment, helicopters including a support team and spares, fuel barrels, supplies and waste that cannot be left in the ‘White Continent’. The IX Brigada Aérea, based at Comodoro Rivadavia, operates two transport types, the Saab 340B and DHC-6. Escuadrón VI de Transporte Aéreo flies four Saab 340Bs, mainly used by the state airline Líneas Aéreas del Estado (LADE) for connecting small Patagonian villages with the region’s main cities. This is a high-value service, especially in the winter season when certain villages can only be reached by air. The Twin Otter equips two squadrons within Grupo Aéreo 9 at Comodoro Rivadavia. The
les
VII
Equipped with emergency flotation bags, one of the two Mi-171Es – serial H-94 (c/n 171E0032105701U) – hovers low over the water. The ‘Hips’ received a high-visibility colour scheme like that used by the Chinook (in FAA service between 1980 and 2002).
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Escuadrón VII de Transporte Aéreo is assigned a wide variety of missions, including personnel and equipment transport, search and rescue (SAR, including oceanic SAR), tactical work on short and unpaved runways, special operations support and medical evacuation (medevac). It also operates on some of LADE’s routes. The Antarctic is the natural scenario for the DHC-6, and one example is permanently detached at Marambio air base. Known as Escuadrilla ‘Águilas’ (‘Eagles’ Flight), the Twin Otter’s crew are highly appreciated by scientists and military personnel stationed annually or seasonally at different camps, shelters and bases spread across Antarctica. Besides its ability to land on ice and snow runways (using skis), enabling transport of cargo and passengers, the Twin Otter is also responsible for SAR alert below the 60th parallel south, emergency medevac to the continent, glaciological mapping, scientific probe surveys and sea condition reports for navigation. Training of future transport pilots is carried out by the Escuadrón CEPAT (Curso de Estandarización de Procedimientos para Aviadores de Transporte, Procedures Standardisation Course for Transport Aviators). The DHC-6 fleet began being used on this course in 1996, when it was reinstated at Comodoro Rivadavia. Nevertheless, this situation will change with the recent confirmation of the purchase of ten ex-US Navy TC/UC-12B Hurons via the US government’s Foreign Military Sales programme. The first example will be received by the end of the year, and it has been
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Argentine Air Force order of battle Squadron/unit
Aircraft
Mission
Base
I Brigada Aérea Grupo 1 de Transporte Aéreo (G1TA) Escuadrón I
KC/C-130H Hercules, L-100-30
Escuadrón II
F28 Mk1000C Fellowship
Transport, tanker
El Palomar (Buenos Aires)
Transport
Learjet 35A/Learjet 60
Photoreconnaissance, transport
Escuadrón Verificación de Radioayudas
Learjet 35A/Learjet 60
Airfield navaids calibration
Escuadrón IV
F27 Mk400M/600 Friendship/Troopship
Transport
Escuadrilla Servicios A182J/N Skylane
Paraná (Entre Ríos)
Liaison
H500D
Advanced training
Base
Escuadrón III
Mi-171E
Transport
Operates various transports from other units
Special forces commandos
IX Brigada Aérea Grupo Aéreo 9 (GA9) Escuadrón VI de Transporte Aéreo
Saab 340B
Transport
Escuadrón VII de Transporte Aéreo
DHC-6 Twin Otter 200
Transport
Escuadrón CEPAT
DHC-6 Twin Otter 200
Training
III Brigada Aérea Grupo 3 de Ataque (G3A) Reconquista (Santa Fe)
Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea I
P2002JF Sierra
Elementary training
Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea II
G 120TP-A
Primary training
Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea III
T-6C+ Texan II
Basic/advanced training
Escuadrón I
IA-58A Pucará
Attack, border patrol
Escuadrón II
EMB-312A Tucano
Attack, border patrol
Escuadrón Adiestramiento
A182J Skylane, AB180RVR, PA-25-260 Puelche
Liaison, SAR, glider tug
Liaison
Escuadrón Volovelismo
Various gliders
Training
Escuadrón SANT
Various UAVs
Training
Escuadrilla Servicios A182J/N Skylane IV Brigada Aérea Grupo 4 de Caza (G4C) Escuadrón I
Advanced training
IA-63 Pampa II
Escuadrón III Búsqueda, Rescate y SA315B Lama Tareas Especiales
SAR
Escuadrilla Servicios A182J/N Skylane
Liaison
El Plumerillo (Mendoza)
A/OA-4AR Fightinghawk
Escuadrilla Servicios A182J/N Skylane
Attack, fighter
Villa Reynolds (San Luis)
VI Brigada Aérea Grupo 6 de Caza (G6C) IA-63 Pampa III
Attack
Escuadrilla Servicios
A182J/N Skylane, Aerocommander 500U
Liaison
Tandil (Buenos Aires)
Bell 212/412EP
stated that a batch of Hurons will replace the Twin Otter 200 in the CEPAT, which will be moved to the II Brigada Aérea at Paraná. The rest of the Hurons will be distributed across the major units for liaison/ utility purposes. These aircraft were selected by FAA personnel at the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan, Arizona, and will be returned to flight condition before being delivered. The DHC-6 Twin Otter 200’s extensive history with the FAA started in 1968, when the first five were handed over, followed by an additional three in 1983 and a final example acquired in 1998. A life-extension overhaul began in 2011 and includes introduction of a glass cockpit, new navigation/ communications avionics and
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Flight testing
Córdoba (Córdoba)
Escuadrilla I
PA-A-28-236 Dakota, PAMorón Transport, liaison A-28-RT-201 Arrow IV (Buenos Aires)
Escuadrilla II
PA-A-34-220T Seneca III
Dirección de Operaciones de la Agrupación Aérea de Presidencia Dirección de Operaciones de Aviones Escuadrón Boeing
757-200, 737-500
Escuadrón Learjet
Learjet 60SE
Presidential transport
El Palomar (Buenos Aires)
Dirección de Operaciones de Helicópteros
VII Brigada Aérea Grupo Aéreo 7 (GA7) Escuadrón I
IA-58H Pucará Fénix, IA-63 Pampa III, Cessna 180F, B45 Mentor
BAM Morón Escuadrón Aéreo
Liaison
Escuadrón I
Córdoba (Córdoba)
Dirección General de Investigación y Desarrollo Centro de Ensayos en Vuelo (CEV) OTMA CEV (Organismo Técnico de Mantenimiento Aeronáutico CEV)
V Brigada Aérea Grupo 5 de Caza (G5C) Escuadrón I
Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut)
Escuela de Aviación Militar Grupo Aéreo Escuela (GAE)
Electronic warfare
Learjet 35A
Mission
Escuadrón Operativo/Escuela/ Técnico
Grupo Reconocimiento Aeroespacial (GRA) Escuadrón Guerra Electrónica
Aircraft
Escuadrón II/ CEPAHC
Grupo de Operaciones Especiales (GOE)
II Brigada Aérea Grupo Aéreo 2 (GA2) Escuadrón II
Squadron/unit
Transport, CSAR
Moreno (Buenos Aires)
Escuadrón S-70
S-70A Black Hawk
Escuadrón S-76
S-76B Spirit
Three workhorses of the FAA’s challenging Antarctic and high-mountain operations. From left to right: Bell 412EP, SA315B Lama and skiequipped DHC-6 Twin Otter 200.
Pratt & Whitney PT6A-27 engines; five aircraft have been completed, with two more on the waiting list. Operated by the II Brigada Aérea at Paraná, the Learjet 35A fleet celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2017. Its current duties comprise photo-reconnaissance, VIP transport, airfield navaids
calibration and medevac. In 2016, a single Learjet 35A (serial VR-24) was acquired and locally modified for electronic intelligence/signals intelligence (ELINT/SIGINT), equipped with Thales Vigile 200 electronic support measures (ESM). A fleet of FMA-Cessna 182s
fulfil liaison, light transport and para-rescue requirements, with aircraft scattered across different units around the country. In 2018, a cockpit digitalisation and navigation/communications upgrade began to modernise the survivors, in service since 1965. A single twin-engine Rockwell
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A tactical-style overall grey scheme is worn by Chincul-Piper PA-A-34-220T Seneca III serial PG-321 (c/n AR34-8133039) assigned to Escuadrilla II at BAM Morón, on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
Aerocommander 500U (serial T-133) – survivor of a fleet of 14 machines introduced in 1968 – faces a fight for survival after a minor accident in February 2018 left it grounded, awaiting a decision about its future. Introduction of the Huron might lead to the withdrawal of this sole example. BAM Morón – located on the outskirts of Buenos Aires – operates Chincul-Piper PA-A28-236 Dakota, PA-A-28-RT-201 Arrow IV and PA-A-34-220T Seneca III aircraft for light transport duties. The fleet is currently undergoing a similar upgrade programme to Cessna 182s. Significant for the FAA’s training effort, three piston-engine FAdeALaviasa PA-25-260 Puelche and a single Aero Boero AB-180RVR light aircraft are used by the EAM’s Escuadrón Volovelismo (Glider Squadron) at Córdoba for glider towing and liaison. Three types satisfy presidential transport needs. A 737-500 (serial T-04, in service from 2014) Four of the ten Grob G 120TP-A trainers operated by the Escuela de Aviación Militar’s Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea II formate for the camera. These aircraft were purchased by FAdeA which then leased them back to the FAA.
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and a Learjet 60SE (serial T-11, delivered last March) are currently serviceable, while the 757-200 (serial T-01, purchased in 1992) is grounded and has been preserved since January 2016, awaiting a D-check inspection. Previously, there were suggestions the 757-200 might be sold or even scrapped, but the new government has decided to allocate funding to finally perform the overhaul. The Learjet 60 (serial T-10), acquired as a VIP transport and introduced in 1999, was regularly used for presidential flights, but with the arrival of T-11 it was transferred to the II Brigada Aérea at Paraná. T-01 and T-04 are not formally part of the FAA fleet, but belong to the government and are flown by air force pilots.
Helicopters
The FAA operates an eclectic helicopter fleet comprising five types from three suppliers in France, Russia and the US. These equip four flying squadrons assigned to two units stationed at
Moreno (VII Brigada Aérea) and Mendoza (IV Brigada Aérea). The main helicopter unit is the VII Brigada Aérea, responsible for three squadrons. Escuadrón I flies the Bell 212/412 fleet. A total of 11 Bell 212s entered service from 1978. With the withdrawal of the last operational UH-1H in 2007, they became the main workhorse of the FAA’s rotary fleet. Since 1978, they have also deployed to Base Marambio to support the Campaña Antártica de Verano. Beginning in 1998, a Bell 212 has been permanently deployed on behalf of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP). The Argentine UN Flight began operations in 1994 with a pair of Hughes 500Ds. The unit is based at Lárnaca Airport and conducts observation and reconnaissance patrols along the buffer zone, medevac (sanitary evacuation) and urgent casualty evacuation (casevac), familiarisation flights, command, control and liaison tasks, and cargo
and passenger transportation. The UN Flight has accumulated more than 28,000 flight hours since the deployment began. In 2013, the first two Bell 412s (serials H-101 and 102) were purchased on the civilian market. An additional four refurbished Bell 412EPs (serials H-103 to 106) were then bought via the FMS programme and delivered in January 2018. The squadron’s tactical capabilities have thus dramatically improved, these machines arriving fully equipped with external fixed hoists, Nightsun searchlights, FLIR systems, cabin lighting compatible with thirdgeneration night-vision goggles (NVGs), interchangeable skids incorporating emergency flotation bags for overwater operations, cabin ‘wet floor’ protectors and avionics for all-weather operations. Escuadrón I can now perform a wide range of tactical duties, such as SAR (its main role), combat SAR (using visual, electronic or radial search), VIP transport, medevac, casevac, troop and cargo transport, special forces missions support and paratrooper training. For self-defence, the Bell 212 can be armed with door-mounted 7.62mm MAG machine guns on locally designed pintle mounts. After completing the basic flying course (CBCAM) at the EAM, pilots selected for helicopter specialisation move to the army’s flying school at Campo de Mayo (Buenos Aires), which hosts the Curso Conjunto de Pilotos de Helicópteros, (CCPHEL, Joint Helicopter Pilot Course). The course is attended by aircrew from the army, navy and air force, sometimes from other countries, all flying the Bell 206B-3. The FAA has an agreement with the Ejército del Aire (Spanish Air Force) under which it also regularly sends pilots to the Escuela Militar de Helicópteros (Military Helicopter School) at Armilla in Granada, where they fly the EC120 Colibri. After completing either of these courses, pilots are assigned to Escuadrón II at Moreno, where they receive further specialised training in the FAA syllabus. This advanced rotary syllabus relies on the RACA-Hughes 500D. The first of 32 (of different versions, including the 369HS/HM and 500C/D/E) entered service in 1969 and a handful of survivors remain operational under Escuadrón II. On these aircraft, pilots conduct the Curso de
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Undoubtedly one of the more unusual types in FAA service is this FAdeA-Laviasa PA-25-260 Puelche, serial PG-463. The aircraft – a locally produced PA-25 Pawnee – is used for glider towing on behalf of the EAM’s Escuadrón Volovelismo at Córdoba.
Estandarización de Procedimientos Avanzados de Helicópteros de Combate (CEPAHC, Advanced Helicopter Combat Procedures Standardisation Course), a demanding syllabus including CSAR escort tasks, defensive and offensive manoeuvres against aircraft and helicopters, SAR tasks, and external slung-load operations. On completion, pilots move to the Bell 212/412, Mi-171E or SA315B or otherwise remain in the squadron as operational pilots. In order to strengthen capabilities for Antarctic operations, two Mi-171Es were purchased in 2011 and assigned to Escuadrón III (VII Brigada Aérea). Their high payload capacity – 8,818lb (4,000kg) – has proven to be especially important during supply summer campaign operations at Marambio. By the end of this year, they will both reach 2,000 flight hours and will be grounded pending a major overhaul. The FAA is assessing the most suitable option for this work. These three squadrons
permanently operate with commando troops from the Grupo de Operaciones Especiales (GOE, Special Operations Group) as they share the same home base. The final FAA helicopter unit is Escuadrón III Búsqueda, Rescate y Tareas Especiales (Search and Rescue and Special Tasks) operating from Mendoza (IV Brigada Aérea) and equipped with the SA315B Lama, introduced from 1975. From 2019, this squadron has made a huge effort to field three operational machines, despite a shortage of funds and the extremely high cost of spares. The Lama’s natural operating environment is the rugged Andes region, for which the crew receive special training for high-mountain flying. Rapidly changing weather conditions, strong and sudden wind shears and difficult landing zones can all be extremely hazardous, so it’s mandatory to always operate with at least two helicopters. The FAA has already decided that the Lama’s replacement
will be either the Airbus H125 or the Bell 407 and allocation of funds for the acquisition is expected in the near future.
Trainers
Based in Córdoba, the Grupo Aéreo Escuela (GAE) currently comprises three aerial instruction squadrons. They are fully assigned to the CBCAM course, where students – not only from the FAA, but also the navy and army, and even other Latin American air arms – learn to fly. The FAA’s pilot screening trainer is the Tecnam P2002JF Sierra. Assigned to Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea I, eight examples were introduced in 2016 under a ‘pay-per-hour’ leasing scheme with a private contractor. Due to its excellent performance, by the end of 2018 the FAA had decided to exercise the option to purchase the fleet. The B45 Mentor’s withdrawal from training duties initiated a selection process
that ended with acquisition of a fleet of ten Grob G 120TP-As in 2013. The fleet was bought by FAdeA and hired to the FAA via the defence ministry under a ‘pay-per-hour’ service contract. The Grob fleet equips Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea II, with which pilots receive primary training. In April 2017, the FAA signed a contract for the first four brandnew T-6C+ aircraft, which arrived in October 2017. Eight additional Texan IIs were purchased, the last in December 2019. All are assigned to Escuadrón Instruccion Aérea III. With these acquisitions, the GAE has managed to field a state-ofthe-art glass-cockpit fleet, setting a high standard in pilot training. After completing the CBCAM course, selected future fighter pilots move to Mendoza’s IV Brigada Aérea. There they begin flying the Pampa II advanced trainer under the Curso de Estandarización de Procedimientos para Aviadores de Combate (CEPAC, Procedures Standardisation Course for Fighter Pilots). The IA-63 Pampa was introduced from 1988 and a total of 22 examples were delivered. The fleet received an avionics and cockpit upgrade in 2007, emerging as the Pampa II. An engine replacement effort was launched in 2013, the trainers receiving the more powerful and efficient Garret AirResearch TFE73140-2N as they entered their 1,200-flight-hour major overhaul. Next year, the FAdeA plans to sign a contract with the defence ministry to upgrade the remaining Pampa II fleet to Pampa III standard. AFM
Escuadrón S-70 and Escuadrón S-76 within the Dirección de Operaciones de la Agrupación Aérea de Presidencia operate the Black Hawk (serial H-01, c/n 70-203 nearest camera) and Spirit, respectively.
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F-16 crash near March ARB – report released More on USAF F-16 mishap in Korea
Above: Wreckage from the South Dakota ANG F-16C 88-0477 inside the commercial warehouse that it crashed into on May 16 last year. USAF
A
IR COMBAT Command has released the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board report into the May 16, 2019, crash of a South Dakota Air National Guard F-16C into a warehouse near March Air Reserve Base (ARB), California – see Attrition, July 2019, p108. The report, published on May 31 this year, identifies the aircraft involved as Block 40 F-16C 88-0477 assigned to the 114th Fighter Wing/175th Fighter Squadron ‘Lobos’ at Sioux Falls Regional Airport-Joe Foss Field, South Dakota. The aircraft was undertaking duties with the 144th FW, Detachment 1, at March ARB when it crashed on approach to the base at 1539hrs local time. There were no fatalities, but the mishap aircraft (MA) impacted a commercial warehouse, resulting in minor injuries to people working
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there. The mishap pilot (MP), assigned to the 144th FW, Det 1, ejected before impact and sustained minor injuries. The MA, valued at US$24,991,645, was destroyed and the environmental clean-up cost was US$3,937,652. The flight had been intended to practise an aerospace control alert scramble of two F-16s and to conduct aircraft intercept training. It was a twoaircraft formation with the training activities occurring in a military operating area (MOA) approximately 120 miles (193km) east of March ARB. The MP was to fly the number two aircraft in the formation (the ‘wingman’) during take-off, transition to the MOA, return to base and land. During the approach into March ARB, the MA experienced low pressure in system A of its dual hydraulic system, followed by
low pressure in system B. The loss of hydraulic pressure in both systems significantly degraded the effectiveness of the hydraulically actuated flight controls. Unable to maintain control of the jet, the MP ejected near the threshold of March ARB’s Runway 14. The Aircraft Accident Investigation Board president found, by a preponderance of evidence, the cause of the mishap was the improper installation of two hydraulic check valves in the right flaperon integrated servo actuator (ISA), which resulted in a loss of sufficient hydraulic pressure to control the MA. A preponderance of the evidence also indicated an inadequate ISA overhaul process that lacked an effective procedure to identify improper installation of ISA check valves was a substantially contributing factor.
ADDITIONAL DETAILS have become available regarding the accident involving a USAF 8th Fighter Wing (FW) F-16C at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, last December 2 (see Attrition, February, p89), following publication of the Aircraft Accident Investigation Board report. This identifies the aircraft involved as F-16CM Block 40 90-0714 ‘WP’ from the 8th FW’s 80th Fighter Squadron (FS) ‘Juvats’. At 1537hrs local time on December 2, 2019, the aircraft crashed between Runway 36 and Taxiway P at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea. The mishap pilot (MP) was an instructor assigned to the 80th FS. The MP was returning to Kunsan AB after completing a local continuation training sortie. Upon initial contact with the runway, the mishap aircraft’s (MA’s) right main landing gear (RMLG) collapsed and the MA yawed to the right. The MP attempted to keep the aircraft on the runway and get airborne again but was unsuccessful. The jet departed the runway and the MP successfully ejected, suffering only minor injuries. The MA remained upright and skipped across the infield, intermittently becoming airborne and settling back onto the field. The fighter eventually stopped approximately 2,200ft (671m) from the first touchdown point and the MA rotated 150° from the initial runway heading. The MA, valued at US$19.4m, was destroyed. There were no casualties and no loss of civilian property. The Accident Investigation Board president found, by a preponderance of evidence, this mishap was caused by a failure of the RMLG down-lock actuator, causing the RMLG to collapse, making the aircraft uncontrollable during the landing phase of flight.
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Accident Reports D: May 30 N: Russian DOSAAF T: Yak-52M S: RF-01225 While taxiing at Bogorodsky in the Nizhny Novgorod region at around 1600hrs during ground training, the propeller hit the ground, causing a fire in the engine compartment. The aircraft was burnt out, but the two occupants escaped uninjured. D: May 30 N/U: US Marine Corps/VMM-163 T: MV-22B Osprey S: 166740 ‘YP-11’ While parked on Ramp 6 at San Diego-Brown Field Municipal Airport, California, at approximately 0940hrs local time, the port propeller of civilian Kapowsin Air Sports/Skydive Kapowsin San Diego DHC-6-100 Twin Otter N52FW struck the port main rotor of this Osprey, tearing out a large section of the rotor. The impact then swung the Twin Otter around and its starboard propeller hit the rear of the Osprey’s port engine nacelle, tearing off a large section and leaving the Twin Otter’s starboard engine hanging vertically down from its mountings. Damage to the Osprey was mostly on the port side, including the engine compartment, wing, undercarriage and port propeller. The starboard propeller was also damaged when the impact pushed it to the ground. No one was injured in the incident. The Twin Otter had been at the airport for some weeks undergoing maintenance and had just started up prior to departure to the nearby Nichol’s Field skydiving airstrip with only the pilot on board. The pilot said the aircraft had begun to roll forward despite application of the parking brake and that when he pressed the brakes they were unresponsive. He pulled back on the power but was unable to stop before the Twin Otter veered to the left and into the Osprey. Damage to both aircraft was extensive and it has been listed as a Class A mishap by the US Naval Safety Center, indicating more than US$2.5m damage. The Osprey, based at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, California, had been conducting routine training in the area but had been parked up at the airport
The burnt-out remains of DOSAAF Yak-52M RF-01225 after the propeller hit the ground while taxiing at Bogorodsky on May 30. Both occupants escaped unharmed before the fire took hold. Ministry for Emergencies of Russia in the Nizhny Novgorod Region
and no marines were on board at the time of the collision. D: Jun 4 N: Libyan National Air Force T: Mi-35 S: 856 When Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) forces overran Abu Aisha Agricultural Aviation Airport, southeast of Tripoli, Libya, on this date, they captured this Mi-35 intact. Although in perfect condition, the helicopter had been left behind having reportedly been grounded due to an engine problem that could not be repaired. After being captured by the GNA, it was towed around the airfield at high speed, causing considerable damage to the airframe – it was also daubed with graffiti. Several days later, it was put on a flatbed low-loader to be moved by road to Tripoli but was further damaged when it failed to clear a low bridge, which struck the rotor head. An image of it trapped under the bridge appearing on social media on June 10 said this had occurred “a few days ago”. D: Jun 5 N: Royal Netherlands Air Force T: CH-47F Chinook S: D-893 This helicopter – an interim example being flown to Boeing for upgrade to the definitive CH-47F configuration – was parked up at Reading Regional Airport, Pennsylvania and damaged during a severe storm at around 1530hrs local time. The crew was making a scheduled stopover to refuel while en route from the
factory. Due to approaching bad weather, it was decided to remain at Reading before continuing. Despite the rotor blades being secured by tie-down lines, the unexpected severity of the storm caused one of these tie-downs to snap, allowing the wind to take hold of a forward rotor blade and break it at the connection with the rotor head. As a result, the helicopter was moved to its destination by road for shipping to the Netherlands. After inspection, the second helicopter was found to be undamaged and flew to its destination as planned. D: N:
Jun 6 French Sécurité Civile/ Départment des Pyrénées-
Atlantiques T: EC145 S: F-ZBQF After carrying out a mountain rescue at Col de la Taillandère, near the town of Laruns in the Pyrenees, this helicopter, callsign ‘Dragon 64’ from Pau-Uzein, took off around 1100hrs local time but one of the main rotor blades struck a rock wall. The helicopter was able to perform a safe emergency landing nearby and damage appeared to be minimal, although it had to be grounded pending repairs. The pilot, mechanic, doctor and injured hiker on board were unhurt. Another Sécurité Civile EC145, ‘Dragon 33’, took over from ‘Dragon 64’ while the latter underwent repairs.
Above: USMC/VMM-163 MV-22B 166740 ‘YP-11’ and civilian DHC-6-100 Twin Otter N52FW after the latter had brake failure and ran into the stationary Osprey at San Diego-Brown Field Municipal Airport on May 30, extensively damaging both aircraft. City of San Diego
Abbreviations: D: Date N/U: Nationality/Units T: Type S: Serials
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Attrition Report D: Jun 6 N: Indonesian Army T: Mi-17V-5 S: HA-5141 This helicopter was destroyed when it crashed and exploded in flames at 1345hrs local time at Kaliwungu in the Kendal Industrial Park, in the Kendal district of Central Java, during a routine tactical manoeuvre training flight from the Army Aviation Education Centre at Ahmad Yani International Airport, Semarang. Four of the nine on board were killed, the other five sustained injuries and were taken to hospitals in Kendal and Semarang. D: Jun 8 N/U: German Air Force/HSG 64 T: CH-53GS S: 84+58 During a sortie from its base at Laupheim, the crew of this helicopter was alerted by a main transmission warning in the cockpit and made a precautionary landing at around 1100hrs local time to the north of Schlierbach. None of the seven on board were injured and the helicopter was undamaged. The warning proved to be false. D: Jun 8 N: Netherlands Coast Guard T: Dornier 228-212 S: PH-CGN The port main undercarriage tyre burst as this aircraft was landing at Eindhoven Airport at 1238hrs local time following a training flight from Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, resulting in the aircraft briefly bouncing back into the air, causing some airframe damage when it came down again. As a result of the incident, the stricken aircraft blocked the runway, which remained closed for the rest of the day for investigation and recovery using a crane. No injuries were reported to the two crew members and damage to the aircraft was believed to be minor. The runway reopened at 0700hrs the next morning. D: Jun 8 N/U: US Air Force/Georgia Air National Guard/165th Airlift Wing/158th Airlift Squadron T: C-130H3 Hercules S: 94-6706 At approximately 2210hrs local time, this aircraft overran the
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A Brazilian Air Force C-98A Grand Caravan sits on its nose after running off the runway following brake failure on landing at Base Aérea de Porto Velho on June 11. FAB
runway while landing at Camp Taji Air Base, Iraq, before crashing into a wall, resulting in structural damage to the aircraft and a small fire. The airfield crash, fire and rescue team were on the scene within four minutes, extinguishing the flames and assisting with evacuation of the Hercules. Four of the seven crew members and 26 passengers sustained non-life-threatening injuries and were being treated at Camp Taji’s medical facility, from where three of the four were released later after treatment. All of the injured were military personnel, one being a crew member from the Wyoming Air National Guard. An Operation Inherent Resolve statement said that enemy action is not suspected but an investigation is under way. The aircraft was deployed with the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing at Ali Al Salem, Kuwait. Although the crew were from the Wyoming ANG’s 153rd Airlift Wing/187th Airlift Squadron at Cheyenne Regional Airport/ Jerry Olson Field, the aircraft was assigned to the Georgia ANG.
D: Jun 8 N/U: US Air Force/388th Fighter Wing T: F-35A Lightning II Following a routine local training flight, this aircraft’s undercarriage collapsed on landing at 1045hrs local time at Hill Air Force Base, Utah. The pilot was able to exit the aircraft and underwent routine medical examination. All flights from the base were paused and inbound flights diverted after the runway was temporarily closed. D: Jun 10 N/U: Royal Netherlands Air Force/322 Squadron T: F-16AM S: J-631 Following a bird strike over the North Sea, this aircraft, callsign ‘Polly 1’, made a precautionary landing at Amsterdam-Schiphol Airport, making a paired approach with its wingman in a second F-16AM (J-871 ‘Polly 2’), which did not land and overshot and departed once the first aircraft touched down. Serial J-631 landed safely and the pilot was unhurt. After being towed off the runway
to Kilo apron and into Hangar 3, the aircraft was inspected for damage and then had its engine replaced. It was flown back to its home base at Leeuwarden on June 12 using callsign ‘Cobra 01.’ D: Jun 11 N: Brazilian Air Force T: C-98A (Cessna 208B) Grand Caravan S: 2733 After returning from a mission in the region of Forte Príncipe da Beira, in the municipality of Costa Marques, Rondônia state, northern Brazil, this aircraft had brake failure on landing at Base Aérea de Porto Velho/Jorge Teixeira International Airport in the state capital. The Cessna veered off the runway and the nose undercarriage collapsed as it ran over undulating ground. It came to rest with the tail high in the air and unconfirmed damage to the front of the aircraft. There were no passengers on the aircraft and the pilot was unhurt. D: Jun 13 N: Kenya Police Air Wing T: AW119 MkII Koala S: 5Y-NPW This helicopter was damaged beyond repair when it crashed into trees and rolled over before coming to rest on its starboard side in the Kaithe-Kithoka area, Meru county, having developed a mechanical problem. Three of the four occupants sustained minor injuries and one was seriously injured, all were taken to hospital in Meru. The Koala was carrying the Eastern Regional security commissioner and his team and was en route to Marsabit for a meeting with North Eastern security personnel. Eyewitnesses
USAF/493rd Fighter Squadron F-15C 86-0176 ‘LN’ over East Anglia on May 12 while participating in Exercise Point Blank 2002. A month later, on June 15, the Eagle crashed unto the North Sea, killing the pilot, Lt Kenneth ‘Kage’ Allen. USAF/Master Sgt Matthew Plew
Abbreviations: D: Date N/U: Nationality/Units T: Type S: Serials
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said the helicopter had been circling the area for around 15 minutes before it crashed on a farm at around 0730hrs local time, causing extensive damage to banana, maize and other crops. D: Jun 13 N/U: Russian DOSAAF/Samara Regional Club T: Yak-52 S: RF-00261 An instructor and student were killed when this aircraft made a heavy landing at 1151hrs local time in a cornfield half-a-mile (800m) south of the village of Oktyabrsky, near Bobrovka Airport, in the Kinelsky district of the Samara region. Although there was no fire, the Yak-52 was extensively damaged, including the fuselage being broken in half behind the cockpit and the nose smashed. D: Jun 15 N/U: Indonesian Air Force/ Skadron Udara 12 T: Hawk Mk209 S: TT-0209 After experiencing technical problems on approach to Runway 36 at Lanud Roesmin Nurjadin, Pekanbaru, the pilot, 1st Lieutenant Apriyanto Ismail, ejected safely at 0813hrs local time before the aircraft crashed in a residential part of Kubang Jaya village, 3 miles (5km) from the base. The pilot was taken to the Air Force Hospital in Pekanbaru to be checked over. An unoccupied house was destroyed, but no one on the ground was injured. The aircraft was one of three, callsign ‘Cyborg Flight’, which were returning to the base after completing surface-attack exercises on the Siabu Air Weapon Range. D: Jun 15 N/U: US Air Force/48th Fighter Wing/493rd Fighter Squadron ‘Grim Reapers’ T: F-15C Eagle S: 86-0176 ‘LN’ This aircraft, callsign ‘Chosen 4’, crashed into the North Sea 74nm off Flamborough Head, East Yorkshire, at approximately 0940hrs local time during a routine training mission as part of a four-ship flight (‘Chosen 1-4’) from its base at RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk. A major search and rescue operation was immediately launched, including HM Coast Guard S-92 G-MCGH ‘Rescue 912’ from Humberside
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71). The crew ejected safely and was quickly recovered from the sea by a Helicopter Sea Combat Squadron 8 (HSC-8) helicopter assigned to the Roosevelt, which took them back to the carrier, where they were reported to be in good condition after assessment by an on-board medical team.
Libyan National Army L-39ZO Albatros 9430 after force-landing near the Libya-Niger border on June 21.
Airport plus the Bridlington and Scarborough lifeboats. Aircraft involved in the search included the other three F-15s from the formation, with refuelling support coming from 100th Air Refueling Wing KC-135R tankers from RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, including 62-3540 ‘QUID256’, 58-0036 ‘QUID257’ and 59-1513 ‘QUID258’ followed later by 57-2605 ‘QUID 15’. Also assisting was Cobham Falcon 20 ‘TASMAN 71’ and NATO E-3 AWACS ‘NATO 06’. Some wreckage was found later that morning and, in the afternoon, the pilot’s body was recovered from the sea. He was identified the following day as Lt Kenneth ‘Kage’ Allen, who was assistant chief of weapons and tactics with his squadron. D: Jun 17 N: Ukraine Odessa Aircraft Plant T: OAZ Y1 Delfin prototype S: UR-OAP This prototype, designed as a single piston-engine civil and military training aircraft, departed from Odessa International
Airport at 1155hrs local time for a certification test flight with two test pilots on board. At 1214hrs the pilots declared an emergency and began returning to the airport but at 1216hrs the aircraft crashed, impacting nose first at an approximately 25° angle onto a side street in an industrial area half-a-mile (800m) west of the northern end of the airport’s active runway. As a result of the hard ground impact, the aircraft’s nose section and engine were heavily damaged, and the fuselage cracked in several places. The pilot, Oleg Sinitsa, was killed in the crash, while the co-pilot, Yuri Zhukovsky, succumbed to his injuries en route to the hospital. D: Jun 18 N/U: US Navy/VFA-154 ‘Black Knights’ T: F/A-18F Super Hornet S: 166795 This aircraft crashed in the Philippine Sea while undertaking routine pilot proficiency training operations as part of Carrier Air Wing 11 (CVW-11) operating from the USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN
Above: This large gash beneath the cockpit of RAF A400M Atlas C1 ZM409 was the result of a bird strike on approach to Getafe, Spain, on June 25.
D: Jun 21 N: Libyan National Army T: L-39ZO Albatros S: 9430 While on a sortie from SabhaTamanhent air base patrolling the Libya-Niger border, a technical problem forced the pilot to make an emergency landing near Fezzan, southern Libya, close to the border with Niger. The aircraft put down in an open desert area, resulting in the nose undercarriage collapsing, but with no other apparent damage. The two crew are believed to have been unhurt. On June 28, a video was posted online showing it being moved by road on the back of a lorry to an unknown destination. D: Jun 22 N: Turkish Air Force/TAI T: Hürkuş-B While on a routine test flight from the TAI facility at Ankara-Mürted/ Akıncı, this new turboprop trainer crashed at approximately 1230hrs local time in the Ankara Beypazarı district. The two crew members ejected safely and were taken to hospital for routine check-ups but were said to be in good condition. The aircraft was destroyed. D: Jun 25 N: Royal Air Force T: A400M Atlas C1 S: ZM409 This aircraft struck a large bird on approach to Getafe, Spain, but was able to land safely without any injuries to the crew. The aircraft sustained a large gash just below the cockpit on the starboard side, with the fuselage skin torn back leaving a wide hole several feet long. The aircraft had been at Getafe since July 9, 2019, for modifications and was ready to return home; this will now be delayed while repairs are carried out. Additional material from: Danny Reijnen, Scramble/ Dutch Aviation Society, Vladimir Trendafilovski, Maikel de Vaan and Asagiri Yohko. AFM
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Special
Postcard
from Colombia AFM contributors Elio Viroli and Stenio Bacciocchi share their photos from visits to four of the most important Fuerza Aérea Colombiana (FAC, Colombian Air Force) air bases – Palanquero, Apiay, Melgar and El Dorado.
Above: In the air defence role, the Colombian Kfir can employ the beyond-visual-range Rafael Derby as well as Python 5 airto-air missiles, examples of both seen on two-seat Kfir TC12 FAC 3008 (ex IAF 310). Operational Kfirs comprised C10/C12s FAC 3048, 3058, 3061, 3049 and 3045, plus TC12s FAC 3008 and 3009. Left: Escuadrón de Combate 111 ‘Dardos’ has been very active in the campaigns against guerrillas of the FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia) and the ELN (Ejército de Liberación Nacional), its Kfirs notably using Griffin laser-guided bombs. Operations Sodoma, Demóstenes, Selene, Almogàver and Osiris are referenced on Kfir COA FAC 3058 (c/n 184, ex IAF 570). Below: The trip began at Palanquero, near Puerto Salgar on the Magdalena River, 121 miles from Bogotá and 157 miles from Medellín. This is the home of Base Aérea ‘Germán Olano’ and the resident Comando Aéreo de Combate No 1 (CACOM 1), where a refuelling mission was scheduled aboard the air force’s sole KC767, to photograph three Kfir C10/C12s and one Kfir TC12 of the Escuadrón de Combate 111 ‘Dardos’. Nearest the camera is singleseat FAC 3045 (c/n 77) – locally designated as a Kfir COA.
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Right: Palanquero is home to Grupo de Combate 11 that comprises three squadrons: 111, 113 and 116. Escuadrón de Combate 116 ‘Tweet’ still operates the veteran T-37B in different roles, of which training is the most important. T-37Bs noted as operational with the squadron comprised FAC 2130, 2132, 2135 and 2124. FAC 2130 (c/n 41160, ex 68-8055) shows signs of a replacement rudder having been fitted. Below: Escuadrón de Combate 212 ‘Tucanos’ still flies the previous-generation AT-27s. The ‘legacy’ Tucano has also been used during the conflict against FARC. Most famously, in the Fénix operation of March 2008 that led to the death of FARC commander Raúl Reyes, in the south of Colombia, near the Ecuadorian border. Today, the AT-27s are used mostly for training, including bombing practice on the nearby ranges. Operational examples noted were FAC 2252, 2257 (pictured) and 2262. All photos Elio Viroli
Above: CACOM 2 is stationed at Base Aérea ‘CT Luis Francisco Gomèz Niño’ at Apiay, where the Grupo de Combate 21 organised a visit to the flight line of three of the base’s squadrons: 211, 212, 213. (A visit to the unmanned aerial vehicle squadrons, 214 and 217, was cancelled, although these units are seeing increasing use.) Escuadrón de Combate 211 ‘Grifos’ is the FAC’s A-29B unit. The Super Tucanos have been an effective weapon in the fight against FARC and ELN, mostly operating at night. A-29Bs have often employed 250lb or 500lb bombs, as well as the wingmounted machine guns. Operational examples noted comprised FAC 3111, 3115 (seen here), 3105, 3107, 3109, 3113 and 3118. Left: AFM also paid a visit to the Escuadrón de Combate Táctico 113 ‘Fantasma’ that operates a handful of AC-47T Fantasma, Cessna 208B and ECN235 aircraft. The ‘Turbo Dak’ gunship has a 12.7mm calibre GAU-19A gun, plus a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) sensor. All the unit’s C-47s are very old – FAC 1681 (c/n 16500/33248, pictured) dates back to the 1940s and once served with the RAF as KN605. AC-47Ts operational with the Escuadrón de Combate Táctico 113 comprised FAC 1681, 1686 and 1658.
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Special Left: Escuadrón de Combate Táctico 213 uses a variety of different types: the C212-300 for transport and paradropping, the Cessna 208B for various duties including medical evacuation (medevac), and the Schweizer SA2-37B for the fight against the illegal cultivation of cocaine and other drugs. The two-seat SA2-37B can conduct surveillance missions of between eight and ten hours; FAC 5752 (here) and 5755 were noted as operational, as were Cessna 208Bs FAC 5080 and 5074.
Above: A very welcome guest at Apiay was UH-60L FAC 4135 of the Escuadrón de Combate 511, part of CACOM 5. Together with a sister ship, it was deployed there for a week, from its Rionegro home base. Left: The Escuadrón de Ataque 413 operates single examples of the Hughes 369HM and MD 500E helicopters. This is FAC 4252 (c/n 0153E), the last active MD 500E, one of eight delivered in 1985. There have been four confirmed attrition losses and this example may well be the last in service. Below: Also observed at El Dorado were two C295Ms (FAC 1282 and 1284 – pictured – from Escuadrón de Transporte 811), a Beechcraft (FAC 5077, Escuadrón de Transporte 811) prepared for a medevac mission, a Cessna 550 (FAC 1211, Escuadrón de Transporte Especial 821) and a Cessna 208B (FAC 5071, Escuadrón de Transporte 811). Finally, C-130H FAC 1015 was present – this is a former Italian Air Force aircraft, ex MM62001. The Escuadrón de Inteligencia Aérea 831 – which includes the Escuadrón de Inteligencia Aérea 831 and its Beechcraft 300 and 350 electronic intelligence aircraft – was off limits.
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Melgar is well known as the FAC’s main helicopter station. Officially named Base Aérea ‘TC Luis Francisco Pinto Parra’, the base is the home to the Grupo de Combate 41 of CACOM 4. Here, Bell 212 FAC 4008 (c/n 35086) of the Escuadrón de Combate 411 ‘Rapaz’ was prepared for an anti-terror training flight and was photographed over the jungle from a Bell 206 with both side windows removed. ‘Rapaz’ flies the Bell 212 exclusively, including some ex-Canadian CH-135s; the unit’s original UH-1Hs have now been retired; the unit also operates in the combat search and rescue role. Bell 212s noted in service comprised FAC 4410, 4408 and 4021.
Above: A few Cessna 208Bs and numerous UH-1H-II Huey IIs are assigned to the Escuadrón de Asalto Aéreo 412 at Melgar. AFM noted Cessna 208B FAC 5055, plus UH-1H-IIs FAC 4207 (here, in a garish ‘Guerrero Arpía’ colour scheme), 4426, 4423, 4420, 4424 and 4421. Left: The FAC’s helicopter school – the Escuela de Helicópteros ‘Carlos Alberto Gutiérrez Zuluaga’ – is the home of the Bell 206 in Colombian Air Force service. As well as a couple of ex-civil Bell 206B-3s, there was an impressive flight line of ex-US Army TH-67A Creeks, a type that’s still owned by the US government. As a result, they don’t wear Colombian roundels or flags and the usual four-digit code lacks the usual FAC prefix. Aircraft noted operational were: Bell 206B-3s FAC 4479 and 4476, plus TH-67As 4604, 4608, 4576, 4615, 4611, 4569, 4584, 4619, 4618, 4612 (pictured), 4594, 4585, 4622 and 4582.
A walk on the Grupo de Transporte Aéreo 81 apron at El Dorado’s Base Aérea ‘BG Camilo Daza Álvarez’ – the military airport of the capital city Bogotá – revealed examples of the Boeing 727 and 737. All were named after gods from Greek mythology: ‘Cronos’, Boeing 737-46BF FAC 1209, from the Escuadrón de Transporte Especial 821; ‘Vulcano’ and ‘Apolo’, a pair of 727s, FAC 1203 and 1204 (illustrated), from the Escuadrón de Transporte 811; and ‘Jupiter’, KC-767 FAC 1202, also from the Escuadrón de Transporte 811.
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Republic of Singapore Air Force update
Punching above its weight Singapore is working through a major modernisation effort that will transform its small but powerful air force, as Roy Choo explains.
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ffectionately known to many as the ‘little red dot’, Singapore has a reputation for punching above its weight not only in the global economic and finance arena but also in its military defence. With a land area of just 279 sq miles (722km2) and a population of under six million, Singapore is aware of its precarious position as a small state. As such, it has taken an uncompromising, pragmatic view of its defence policies. Since the 1990s, the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) have made substantial strides in the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA), fielding increasingly sophisticated weapons and sensors, integrated in a command, control, communications and computer-processing (C4) network. The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the cutting edge of the SAF, charged with defending the skies and enabling operations in the land and sea domains. In recent years, it has made significant investments to upgrade or supersede platforms facing obsolescence.
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‘Viper’ upgrade
This is a momentous year for the RSAF’s Fighter Group as it marks 50 years of operations. Its first fighter squadron – 140 Squadron ‘Osprey’ – was inaugurated in February 1970 with ex-Royal Air Force Hawker Hunters. Today, the unit, together with two other Singaporebased squadrons and a training detachment at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, operate a combined fleet of 60 F-16C/D/D+ aircraft. The RSAF F-16s are undergoing a mid-life upgrade to a standard comparable to the F-16V. A US$914m Foreign Military Sales (FMS) contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin in December 2015, and this has been further supplemented by two additional contracts totalling $94m. The upgrade work will include installation of the Northrop Grumman AN/ APG-83 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, modular mission computers,
Left: MG Kelvin Khong was appointed Chief of Air Force on March 22 last year. MINDEF Singapore
Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), Link 16 terminals and integration of new weapons such as the AIM-9X, Small Diameter Bomb and CBU105 Sensor Fuzed Weapon. The new fighter is also expected to feature an updated electronic warfare suite of Israeli origin. An F-16C and an F-16D were flown from Singapore to Lockheed’s Fort Worth facility in Texas for prototyping works in 2016. The single-seater – serial 613 – has been observed performing test flights of upgrade components since early 2020. According to Chief of Air Force Major-General (MG) Kelvin Khong, interviewed by local media in February, work on local aircraft has started, with government-linked company Singapore Technologies Engineering Aerospace as subcontractor. He expects the first modernised aircraft to roll out next year.
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Left: The RSAF’s two current fighter types – the F-15 and F-16 – in formation within training airspace over the South China Sea. The pair of F-16C Block 52s – nearest camera – are serial 645 from 143 Squadron and serial 620 from 140 Squadron. All photos Roy Choo unless stated
Baby steps with the Lightning
The upgraded F-16s are expected to provide a stopgap until sufficient F-35Bs are operational. Culminating a nearly twodecades-long evaluation process since Singapore joined the Joint Strike Fighter programme as a Security Cooperative Participant in 2003, the US State Department approved the country’s purchase of the F-35B last January. MINDEF announced on June 29 that its four firm orders remain on track for delivery in 2026, with a further eight options. This is widely expected to be the first of multiple batches. The RSAF has indicated that the first four F-35Bs will be based in the US for initial training and testing. It has never operated a lowobservable (LO) or short take-off and vertical landing (STOVL) capable platform. Therefore,
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concept of operations (CONOPS) will have to be drawn up alongside work to integrate the jet with the SAF’s warfighting networks. The detachment will either be located at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort in South Carolina, or MCAS Miramar, California – two of the US Marine Corps-designated F-35B schoolhouses. This is expected to be a temporary measure as both the F-16 Peace Carvin (PC) II training detachment and the F-15 PC V unit at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho will be drawn down in the late 2020s to be moved to Andersen AFB in Guam. The new basing arrangements, signed off by US and Singapore defence officials last December, will allow for overwater training – something lacking in the current land-locked detachments – as well as a more expeditious re-deployment location should the RSAF need to recall its assets in an emergency. Singapore’s lack of strategic depth compared with much larger neighbours means that its air bases are highly vulnerable to attacks.
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Republic of Singapore Air Force update
Above: Single-seat F-16C Block 52 serial 642 in the markings of 143 Squadron ‘Phoenix’ – one of three Singapore-based units operating the ‘Viper’. Right: Airbus and Singapore are collaborating on the Smart MRTT initiative, with one of the RSAF’s tankers remaining in Getafe to support the programme. The aircraft are normally operated by 112 Squadron ‘Twister’. José Ramón Valero
Moreover, plans are afoot for the RSAF to consolidate its three fighter-capable bases into two by 2030, resulting in a reduction of air-power-generating capability. Mitigating these vulnerabilities is the major driver for the selection of the STOVL version of the F-35. Tapping into the USMC F-35B Expeditionary Advanced Base Operations and coupling it with the RSAF’s own experience in public road/ runway operations, the RSAF is well placed to develop doctrine to employ its F-35Bs in dispersed operations. During a wartime scenario, the RSAF would likely operate its F-35Bs from a handful of non-traditional bases around the island, each equipped with landing pads, converted airstrips and forward arming and refuelling facilities. When operational, the RSAF F-35B will herald a new paradigm in the generation and sustainment of fighter operations. The F-15SG marked a full decade of Singaporebased operations this April and will soldier on into the 2030s and beyond. The F-15’s generous payload, integrated with the F-35’s LO characteristics, advanced sensors and sensor fusion technology will make these fighter types a formidable duo – tactics that air arms operating both the F-35 and other 4.5-generation fighters have been keen to exploit. While the F-15s have been incrementally upgraded over the years, a more comprehensive mid-life upgrade could be due towards the end of the decade.
Transport and maritime patrol The ten C-130B/Hs are the workhorses for the RSAF in transport and other support roles and are the oldest in the air force’s fleet. Apart from supporting the SAF’s many overseas exercises around the globe, the C-130s have been tasked to deliver humanitarian aid to disaster-hit areas as well as assisting reconstruction efforts in
Iraq and Afghanistan in the 2000s and 2010s. Starting from 2010, all aircraft were put through an upgrade comprising the installation of a digital glass cockpit, communications, navigation and surveillance/air traffic management (CNS/ATM) systems and self-protection suites. However, the four elderly C-130Bs have an average age of 60 years and are not far from the end of their lifespan. Manufacturers have been keenly eyeing the potential replacement requirement for some time now, with the A400M, C-130J and KC-390 having been marketed to the RSAF. Nine Fokker 50s have been in service with the RSAF’s 121 Squadron since 1994 and are configured in two general variants: five are Mk2S Enforcer maritime patrol aircraft (MPA) while the rest are utility transport aircraft (UTA). The RSAF began studying the replacement of the Fokker 50 MPA in the 2010s. At one stage it was understood to be looking at the Israeli IAI/ELTA ELI-3360 mission suite fitted onto either the Bombardier Q400 or Global-series business jet. In the event, a life-extension programme for the Fokker 50 MPA was pursued in 2017. MG Kelvin Khong stated that as part of the upgrade, components such as the AN/APS-134 maritime surveillance radar, electro-optical/ infrared (EO/IR) sensors and communication systems were replaced. It remains to be seen if the eventual replacement of the Fokker 50 UTA will be combined with that of the C-130 within a more comprehensive transport requirement.
Rotary-wing and UAVs
The RSAF’s Helicopter Group (HG) is experiencing a renaissance as nearly all its types are undergoing upgrade or being refreshed with newer models. Its 12 CH-47SD Chinooks and 20 AH-64D Apaches are undergoing an upgrade which began in 2016.
Work on both the Chinooks and Apaches – which AFM understands is only conducted during phased maintenance – involves retrofitting Elbit Systems’ ALL-in-SMALL integrated self-protection suite and unidentified satellite communications (SATCOM) systems, among other platform-specific upgrades. Originally slated for delivery in late 2020, supply chain disruptions resulting from the pandemic meant that handover of the RSAF’s first H225M and CH-47F has been pushed to early 2021. Orders for both helicopters were placed in 2016 although no contract values or numbers of airframes were ever announced. The H225Ms – thought to be an order for 16 – will replace fewer than two dozen AS332M/M1 Super Puma helicopters that have been operational since the 1980s. According to Defence Review Asia magazine, civilian registrations for 16 unidentified CH-47Fs have been filed with the Federal Aviation Administration and these are likely destined for Singapore. The CH-47Fs will initially go to Oakey Army Aviation Centre in Queensland, Australia, to replace five CH-47Ds in service with the RSAF Chinook training detachment. Delivered in 1996 to the Peace Prairie detachment in Grand Prairie, Texas, the CH-47Ds were moved to Oakey in 2018 and were a part of an international rescue and recovery task force during Australia’s bushfire disaster early this year. Singapore recognised the utility of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) at an early stage, acquiring the IAI Scout in 1984. Today, the RSAF UAV Command utilises the Elbit Hermes 450 and IAI Heron 1 for a variety of intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance roles. Although both UAV types have been in service since 2007 and 2012 respectively, MG Khong said their shorter
Painted in the markings of 142 Squadron ‘Gryphon’, F-15SG serial 8310 returns from an Exercise Pitch Black 2018 sortie at RAAF Base Darwin. This year’s iteration of the exercise was cancelled due to the COVID-19 crisis.
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lifespan compared with manned platforms meant they will soon approach obsolescence.
Challenges
Above: Although the RSAF’s fleet of ten C-130B/Hs was put through an avionics upgrade in the early 2010s, the aircraft’s age means that a replacement can’t be far off. Serial 735 is one of the H-models operated by 122 Squadron. Below: RSAF AH-64D Apache and CH-47SD Chinook helicopters deploy annually to Rockhampton in Queensland, Australia to support the Wallaby series of wargames. Both types are currently undergoing upgrades.
As a small force with strictly limited resources, the RSAF is imbued with the belief that it has to do more with less. It makes significant investments in technology and heavily leverages this to overcome its challenges. Artificial intelligence (AI) and data analytics are being applied in a number of initiatives. During Exercise Forging Sabre held at Mountain Home AFB last October, the RSAF tested a ‘smart’ command post that utilises software to automatically locate targets from a feed provided by multiple sensors. The RSAF is also exploring the development of ‘smart air bases’ which will feature unmanned ground vehicles, AI and data analytics in areas such as aircraft inspection and maintenance, air base security and runway damage assessment and repairs. Airbus and Singapore are also collaborating on the SMART MRTT programme to develop and implement an automatic air-to-air refuelling (A3R) capability for the A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT). The technology aims to reduce the workload of the air refuelling operator, improve safety and optimise fuel-transfer rate. An RSAF A330 MRTT has remained in Getafe, Spain, to support the flight test campaign. Singapore views its armed forces as a critical ‘insurance policy’ against foreign aggression and has sought to maintain defence spending through good times and bad. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges. Singapore’s economy, like others across the world, has been severely impacted. It remains to be seen how the RSAF’s plans for modernisation will be affected. AFM
Above: A batch of 20 F-16D+ jets was delivered to the RSAF under the Peace Carvin IV programme from 2004. Superficially similar to Israel’s F-16I, they feature conformal fuel tanks and Elisra Passive Airborne Warning Systems (PAWS). They will be upgraded together with the older F-16C/D. Serial 678 is on strength with 145 Squadron ‘Hornet’. Left: Five upgraded Fokker 50 Maritime Patrol Aircraft in service with 121 Squadron are equipped with a variety of sensors and can carry AGM-84D Harpoon anti-ship missiles for an offensive punch. Serial 714 carries a search and rescue pod under its starboard wing.
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Next Issue
Coming up in AFM
The September 2020 issue is on sale globally from August 20.*
Next month in AFM, see all three variants of the F-35 in our 25-page celebration of the Lightning II. Alongside awe-inspiring F-35 photos, we look at where the aircraft are based, speak to pilots to find out what makes the Lightning II so special and examine the future of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter.
Other forthcoming features include: • UK Special Forces helicopters • Portugal’s Esquadra 101 ‘Roncos’ • Brazilian AMX report • Leonardo’s plans for the UK
*UK scheduled on-sale date. Please note that overseas deliveries are likely to be after this date. Photo: USAF/Senior Airman Keifer Bowes
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