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United States Coast Guard – San Diego

United States Coast Guard – San Diego


With the main missions of the United States Coast Guard being humanitarian based,
the USCG has many roles. Søren Nielsen reports from USCG station San Diego.
BY: SØREN NIELSEN
United States Coast Guard
The United States Armed Forces are not just the Army, Navy, Air Force or Marine Corps. As part of the Department of Homeland Security, the United States Coast Guard (USCG), is a part of the Armed Forces just like any other military branch in the U.S.

With the main missions of the USCG being humanitarian based, the USCG has roles in maritime homeland security, maritime law enforcement (MLE), search and rescue (SAR), marine environmental protection (MEP), plus the maintenance of river, intracoastal and offshore aids to navigation (ATON).

The USCG operates both at sea and from the air, with a range of boats, cutters and different aircraft types. The USCG is divided into two areas; Atlantic Area and Pacific Area – which are furthermore divided into multiple districts.

Each district then has its own sectors which carry out different roles. Søren Nielsen visited sector San Diego, from District Eleven in the Pacific Area, which among other things operates the MH-60T Jayhawk helicopter. Sector San Diego has a key role within SAR which includes the fight against drugs, illegal migration and the regulation of vessels coming in and out of the ports.

The ‘Tango’ version of the Jayhawk takes off from USCG San Diego
Sector San Diego
The USCG regulates not only all of the vessels within the port of San Diego, but the Captain of the USCG, (Sector San Diego), is also the Captain of the port itself, and as such regulates everything within the port.

Maintaining law enforcement in both air and at sea sees the USCG undertake many tasks. Lieutenant Timothy Nicolet, an MH-60T pilot in Sector San Diego explains,“We also impose law enforcement for drug running and illegal migration, especially here in San Diego. A lot of people enter illegally across the border, whilst others run drugs via the sea – coming from Mexico and further south – then heading offshore and run all the way up and around.

Search and rescue is our main thing, especially with the helicopters, but we also try to stop as many narcotics coming in, as we can. One of the main things within SAR, in San Diego, is medical evacuations of people on cruise ships, as well as from the big fishing fleet offshore. We spend a lot of time picking up people who have fallen, hit their head, had a heart attack, had a scuba diving accident etc. – we have even had shark bites.

The focus is not a battlefield focus, it’s a search and rescue focus. It’s more humanitarian – we’re going out to help people. That’s important for us, and that’s something we have in common and links us a little bit closer, more than just being work colleagues.”

The San Diego sector covers approximately 80 miles of coastline to the north of San Diego, then goes offshore for 200 miles, heading 100 miles south and back to San Diego. Then all the way inland, and covers the entire state of Arizona, including parts of Nevada and Utah, as well. Most of the operating area is inland. But as it’s the Coast Guard, their main focus is maritime distress, which results in 99% of the sorties sector San Diego responds to being over water, while other agencies usually covers inland emergencies.

Because of the endurance the Coast Guard unit would have to travel, (sometimes being more than four hours), it would be ineffective for them to respond to most inland sorties. There is always a risk of sorties inland. There could potentially be someone climbing a cliff inland, falling down injuring himself, and the USCG could be called in to aid them. But usually people call the fire department, and not the USCG when this happens, as you’re inland, and you don’t think about calling the Coast Guard if you’re on a mountain or in the desert.

Besides SAR and patrolling for drugs and migrants, the USCG also go out patrolling some of the critical infrastructures for the United States, like the Hoover Dam, for example.

The Aviation Assets Of USCG
The USCG has a fleet of fixed-wing propeller aircraft. These being the HC-130(H/J) Hercules, HC-144A Ocean Sentry and C-27J Spartan. These fixed-wing turboprops are long-range, high endurance aircraft, capable of covering long distances – and they can fly anywhere up to ten to twelve hours. These are the ones that patrol, especially, long offshore.

Besides the fleet of fixed-wing aircraft, the USCG operate two types of helicopters. These are the MH-60T Jayhawk and the HH-65(C/D/E) Dolphin. The HH-65 is frequently deployed to the larger coast guard ships, where they operate from a landing platform at the stern of the ship. The MH-60T is too large to land on any of the USCG ships, and are usually only land based.

On the aviation front (Sector San Diego) is equipped with three MH-60T Jayhawk helicopters (originally designated HH-60J before being upgraded and redesignated, beginning in 2007). The MH-60T is derived from the SH-60 Seahawk, which is a variant of one of the most common helicopter workhorses, the UH-60 Blackhawk.

The Jayhawk
The MH-60T is designed to fly a crew of four up to 300 miles offshore, hoist up to six additional people on board while remaining on-scene for up to 45 minutes and return to base while maintaining an adequate fuel reserve.

Lt. Nicolet continues, “The tango model (MH-60T red.) is equipped with an additional three external fuel tanks, a smaller one on the right and two on the left. That’s what allows us to go that far, it gives us almost two hours of extra fuel. We can fly for 6 hours, in total. If we’re that far offshore, they’ll usually launch a C-130 or a C-27 to fly behind us, to keep an eye on us, and help us with radio communication and things like that, because of the distance”.

An operational crew of the MH-60T consists of four crew members; Two pilots, one flight mechanic, and one rescue swimmer. Lt. Nicolet explains, “We always fly with two pilots, no matter what. The smaller helicopter (HH-65), you can fly with one pilot, but because of the size of the cockpit and things like that, we always have two pilots in the sixty.

The flight mechanic does a lot of maintenance while on the ground, but he also operates the hoist while out on a sortie. The pilot flying, when doing a rescue, can not see the boat directly under the helicopter. As the boat passes underneath (the helicopter), he loses all visual contact with it. The flight mechanic lays on the floor and looks out of the door, relaying where the pilot should fly. He guides the pilot ‘forward and right 5’, ‘forward and right 10’, ‘easy back’, as you as a pilot can’t see the boat, you are just listening to the guy in the back, trying to follow his instructions, and stay as stable as you can.

The rescue swimmer is the medical professional on board. They have an EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) certification and they’ll administer medical care, if needed, once the patient is onboard the helicopter. Additionally, they can deploy down to the boat, or down in the water, by getting lowered down the hoist”.
“The flight mechanic lays on the floor and looks out of the door, relaying where the pilot should fly.”
The crew getting ready for a training sortie out of San Diego

Two Jayhawks on the ground at USCG San Diego. The yellow paint schema is a retro paint schema, painted due to the centennial of Coast Guard aviation. The ‘retro’ bird is powering up, before heading out for a new training sortie.
Lots of room
Besides the crew, it’s possible to have 5 people seated in the back, if additional seats have been installed. There’s not always enough seats for everyone, however, as Lt. Nicolet continues, “Of the two cases I can recall, there’s the one we were rescuing fishermen out in Alaska. They were in big, soaked survival suits. We picked up nine people, so that was eleven people in the back, with the two crew members.

There was another sortie, where they rescued some people off a cruise ship. They were smaller people, and they weren’t in big survival suits, and I think they had 25 people in the back. One person couldn’t fit in the helicopter, because it was so full, so they had him in the basket, hanging outside the helicopter – but these scenarios are very rare”.

Usually it’s only one or two people they’ll rescue, unless it’s a sinking vessel. It’s just the people in immediate peril (or sick) that get picked up. What’s important to remember is, hoisting people is always dangerous. It’s not easy to hover the helicopter near a boat, as it gets very loud, windy, and it’s a stressful environment. So the USCG only pick up people that are in absolute need of urgent attention, as it’s safer both for them and the USCG. Otherwise they’ll take a boat back to shore if they’re not in urgent need of attention.

Flying In The Dark
Ships don’t just sink without reason and, usually, it’s due to high seas and/or bad weather. Combining this with flying in the dark of night, makes this demanding job even more challenging.

“Flying in the dark is more demanding. From a pilot’s perspective, flying the helicopter is like balancing a broomstick on your hand. A lot of small movements – as long as you correct it right away, then it stays balanced, but if you let it start tipping too far, you can’t go catch it. The helicopter is like that, it’s very delicate. To balance it, you use your visual references outside the helicopter. You use different objects to see if they’re moving, helping you sense how the helicopter is flying.

At night most of these visual references disappear, due to it being dark. So it becomes difficult to sense the motion of the helicopter. Because you can’t always feel it in the seat of your pants you can end up drifting very slowly, and you may not notice it, if you don’t have anything that indicates it.

But if there’s a lot light, or the moon is very bright, then it’s not that difficult. But if it’s really dark then it gets more difficult, especially out at sea. Then you obviously use the instruments in the helicopter, even though you can’t sense the motion occurring outside the helicopter. When we’re hoisting out of boats on dark nights, that’s probably the most difficult thing we do.

But to help with that, we have night vision goggles that we wear, which helps a lot. It basically amplifies the ambient light from the stars and things, magnifying it a lot. But goggles have their limitations, too. A person’s field of view is 180 degrees by 135 degrees. With goggles it’s just a 40 degrees circle, so you have to move your head a lot to see things you usually could see without moving. So it’s important to look around and move your head, to see how the helicopter is moving, to make sure it stays stable.

The helicopter has a lot of systems that helps you, you can even push a button and it will hold a stable hover for you, but when you’re over a boat you need to be very precise, as you need to lower the basket right onto the deck, and the automated hover is not precise enough. It will hold you stable, but usually it will have a little drift.” concludes Lt. Nicolet.

Waiting on the ramp, in front of one of the big hangars as USCG San Diego, is this Jayhawk
“At night most of these visual references disappear, due to it being dark. So it becomes difficult to sense the motion of the helicopter.”
Become A Part Of The USCG
There are two ways to join the USCG; you can either enlist in the Coast Guard, or become an Officer in the Coast Guard. To enlist you just sign up for four years, starting at a bootcamp for 9-10 weeks. You’ll then get your station once you have graduated from bootcamp. The enlisted are the work force of the USCG. The jobs they can choose can also be a lot of fun, such as being a flight mechanic, or a swimmer. Everyone that works on the helicopters – besides the pilots – and everyone that pilots the smaller boats, as well as all of the secretarial and logistical jobs – most of those are enlisted people.

As with all the branches of the U.S. military, all pilots within the USCG are Officers. There are two ways to become an Officer in the USCG. For one, you can go to the Coast Guard Academy once you’ve completed high school. It’s four years of college, after which you receive your degree in one of the eight majors available through the Coast Guard Academy. These majors are:
  • Civil Engineering.
  • Mechanical Engineering.
  • Electrical Engineering.
  • Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering.
  • Operations Research and Computer Analysis.
  • Marine and Environmental Sciences.
  • Government.
  • Management.

When you finally graduate from the academy, you’ll do some extra training before you become an Officer in the USCG.

You can also go to a regular civilian college, get a degree as a lawyer etc., and then go on a 17 week Officer program, at the aptly named Officer Candidate School, becoming an Officer that way.

Once you’re an Officer you can become a pilot as a specialty. To do that, you’ll have to apply to the Flight School Program and, once accepted, you’ll be sent to Pensacola to be trained as a pilot.

Lt. Nicolet explains, “That’s what I did. After high school I applied and got into the Coast Guard Academy. I went there for four years. I studied Marine and Environmental Sciences, and got a Bachelor degree in Environmental Sciences, and then went to Pensacola for flight training. You’ll get a bachelor degree, just like of any other college. They are actually very well respected degrees.

There are a lot of support programs once you’re in the military, that can help you. You can also transfer a lot of what you’ve learnt in the military, (mechanical engineering on the helicopter, for example), to the civilian world, getting certification of what you did in the military, which helps you.”

Being A ‘Sixty’ Pilot
The job as flight crew in the USCG is more like a regular day job, where you have weekends, and you come in to work 7:00 am to 4:00 pm. You go home every night to your family, especially in the 60 community (MH-60 red.), as they do not deploy to ships, which leaves them on the USCG station. Although it’s not always a strict 7 to 4 job, as they do duty rotations. Once a week you’ll stay on base overnight to be part of the crew that’s ready to go out, in case there’s a sortie over the night.

“I kind of like that, it gives you a break from being home every night. I like the pace of the lifestyle.” concludes Lt. Nicolet.

Lt. Nicolet continues: “Flying the aircraft is fun. It’s never easy, it’s always a new challenge. They say you’ll never have a perfect flight. You’ll always mess something up, because there’s always a lot of small motions going on, and there’s a lot of pieces to the equation, navigating, talking on the radio, landing the helicopter, and lot of pieces of knowledge you get from practice, but there’s just too much to practice every day.

So you may only practice one maneuver a couple of times a month, so each time you do it, you try to remember how to do it perfectly, and you’ll never get it perfectly, but you do your best, and you do it well enough.

So it’s a constant learning curve, as a pilot. You’re always studying, so you don’t forget things, and then you’re always relearning the skills, because it takes a lot of practice to learn how to do it, and once you know how to do it, if you don’t do it for two weeks, you’ll be rusty at it, and need to practice it again.

I love being a pilot, as it’s always challenging, and that’s probably the most fun part about it. And also as an Officer, a lot of officer jobs in the military are mostly administration, a lot of emails, managing personnel, managing payroll, managing projects. When you’re a pilot, you can actually go out and do the mission. You are the guy that picks up people in trouble, and actually flying the helicopters.”

“It took us 4 hours to get there, hoist the person, and come back, it’s a long sortie, and it can be further than that.”
The crew of the Jayhawk
The ‘retro’ paint schema looks good on the Jayhawk

Training To Be Ready
When they are not flying, they have other assignments, but when the crew flies during their work day, it takes about half of that day to prepare, execute and debrief, etc. They aim to fly about four times a week, even if there’s only a sortie once or twice a week on average. This means that it could be a long time between when the different crew has an active sortie.

Which is why training is a big part of the work for the crew of the sixty. Lt. Nicolet explains, “The training sortie is always two, to two and half hours, but the law enforcement, and search and rescue sorties just depends on what’s going on. I did a sortie, 220 miles of the coast in Mexico, there was a tanker ship that needed medevac. It took us 4 hours to get there, hoist the person, and come back, it’s a long sortie, and it can be further than that. Sometimes you have to go, get more fuel, and then continue from there. There’s some islands that we can get fuel from, to extend our range offshore.”

The training is structured, and all the aspects of the training must be completed every six months, to be cleared for active sorties, as Lt. Nicolat explains; “We have broken the training into 9 segments. We call them recurrent trainers, and every six months, you have to do that flight one time, to make sure you practice all those skills.

Each flight has a list of maneuvers you have complete, which includes day and night landings, day and night hoistings, instrument flying, external loads, degrading the helicopter (turning off parts of the helicopter red.), practicing emergency procedures, turning off different systems of the helicopters, so it gets harder to fly, like flying with only one engine, or turning off all the hydraulics, making the controls harder to move etc.

The elements on each segment are pretty long, it takes about two hours to do a segment. That’s how we stay proficient.

Infrared and night vision cameras used for locating people in the water, with the heat signatures, also to videotape rescues. The helicopter is equipped with a good radar, including a weather radar, mapping out storms, also to track vessels that have lost radio communication, etc.

Radio frequency tracking, so if someone is talking to us on a certain frequency, then we can use that signal to home in on the direction where the radio call is coming from. If you can’t find somebody, and they don’t know where they are, they can be located with the help of the radio frequency tracking device.

It’s a very capable helicopter, and it has more tools than we can use in one sortie, and it helps us to get the job done.”

The Search – A Crew Effort
When people are in the water, it’s only possible to see the head and shoulders. “Like a needle in a haystack in the ocean”, as Lt. Nicolet points out. “If there are any waves or wind, you have white caps on top of the water, depending on the where the moon or the sun is, there is glare, and it’s like finding a watermelon floating on the water.”

The entire crew helps to search for people, either by using the cameras, or by looking out the windows to do visual searches for people – it’s a crew effort. The pilots can’t do anything by themself.

Communication is the key, as Lt. Nicolet illustrates, “One of our main focuses is our communication. We have to be very clear, and very concise and short, in what you’re trying to say to the other person. When you talk to a person, 70% of the talk is non-verbal. The tone of the voice, how the person reacts etc. When talking on the radio, you’ll miss all the non-verbal communication, and you’re down to 30% of the ability to communicate complex ideas, and complex motions.

So most of what we say is scripted, exact words meaning exact things, and every word has a specific definition. Every phrase is set to a certain speed, so even the speed of the things you’re saying has a meaning. If you come over the top of a boat to hoist, the flight mechanic will guide you in ‘forward and right 20’ … ‘forward and right 15’ … ‘forward and right 10’ … ‘forward and right 5’. If he starts going faster, then you know you’re coming in to fast, and you know you have to slow down, etc.

So there are a lot things like that, where the crew has to be in sync, so that nothing dangerous happens.”

Off we go! Yet another training sortie is under way.
CRM – Crew Resource Management
Teamwork and communication are the keys to success for the USCG. It’s called CRM – Crew Resource Management, and it basically means making sure everyone is communicating clearly, and everyone feels like they have the right to say whatever they want. Lt. Nicolet explains, “Like if someone in the back sees something happening that’s unsafe, or he thinks that this maneuver isn’t safe, or why are we going out to do this, it doesn’t make sense, there is another option – maybe we could do this, it’s much safer.

We want the environment in the helicopter to become low key, so that everybody feels like he has the right to say ‘Sir, I think you’re wrong, this is the wrong thing. Let’s try this’, or ‘I think this would be better’. Because a lot of times a lot of mishaps have happened where someone was just watching while it was happening, and in their mind they thought ‘This is not right, I have seen this happen before, and it’s not good’, and they didn’t say anything, and something bad happens.”

Making sure everyone feels equally responsible for the success of the mission, and equally has the right to give their opinion about how to do something the best way possible, is really important, and a challenge, especially in the military where ranks matter.

Lt. Nicolet concludes, “So you have the person in charge of the aircraft, one of the pilots, called the pilot in command, he’s the ultimate authority. He has 51% of the votes, for whatever we do. Usually he’s the guy with the most experience, he’s the older person who has normally seen most, but that doesn’t mean that someone that’s junior, that’s brand new to the helicopter, doesn’t see something that’s still important.

So we want the most junior mechanic in the back to be able to tell the captain of the sector, who owns the helicopters, who might be flying the mission ‘Hey Sir, I don’t think that’s the best way to do it, let’s try something else’.

So communication is the big key to success. We do a lot of training, so it’s a fair environment, there’s no punishment for giving your opinion on the best way to do something, or giving your feedback. Everyone is fair game to say whatever they think.

Communication between two people can be the most complicated thing. It’s something that we’re always trying to improve.”

A huge thanks Sector San Diego of District Eleven, and especially Lt. Timothy Nicolet, and PA1 Rob Simpson for making this article possible.

#04 of 2017

The last issue of 2017 features a look at ‘The last Prowlers at WTI’, as well as the unique way that Norway, Sweden and Finland train together on a regular basis.

Swedish Air Force – Flying Training School

Swedish Air Force Flying Training School – Luftstridsskolan


The Swedish Air Force flying training school, located at Malmen Air Base, is pretty much incomparable with other armed forces flying training schools.
BY: SØREN NIELSEN
Swedish Air Force Flying Training School
The Swedish Air Force flying training school, located at Malmen Air Base, is pretty much incomparable with other armed forces flying training schools. A very flat and practically non-existent hierarchy, in a place where everyone is equal, gives the students the best possible opportunities to make a success as pilots in the armed forces.

Cutting away the mandatory contract for new pilots, letting them select which type of aircraft they are going to fly before they start the education as well as the amazing atmosphere at the school are just some of the elements that makes Luftstridsskolan at Malmen something you don’t see every day.

In the past, the Swedish Air Force did what many armed forces are doing today when it comes to selecting and training new pilots. This is an approach where less than 25% of the students make it through to become a pilot so the Swedish Air Force took a decision in the seventies to optimize the whole process.

The process has been scrutinised many times before but with no real improvements. They needed to think radically and had to look away from previous points of investigation, the students, and look at different alternatives.

This resulted in an impressive improvement, moving the success rate of less than 25% to a success rate of 95% and where the last 5% isn’t usually due to bad flying skills, but rather personal problems, personality or a mental attitude that is not suitable for the armed forces. Today the Flying Training School houses 48 pilot students (12 helicopter pilots, 4 transport pilots and 8 fighter pilots, every year for two years) and almost the same amount of instructor pilots, split into three squadrons:
  • Basic training Fixed-Wing Sk 60, 1st squadron
  • Advanced training Fixed-Wing Sk 60, 2nd squadron
  • Advanced training Rotary-Wing HKP 15, 3rd squadron

As Capt. Magnus Bragvad, Commanding Officer of the 1st squadron, explains “We changed our philosophy on how we educate future pilots. We start by letting the students know what they are going to fly before they begin their training.”
Number one in the formation of two Sk 60 shows it topside

Type decisions
When the students apply for the education, they can choose between three types – fighter, transport or helicopter and they then need to apply for at least two categories in a priority order. Once they are accepted, they already know which type they are going to fly.

Capt. Bragvad continues, “This comes with the way we are picking our pilots – they should know from the start what they are going to fly. We don’t want to pick out who is going to fly what, because then we becomes judges and not educators.

We want them to know that before they start here there isn’t any competition on who’s going to fly what type – and that’s what we want, no competition. The students are not competing with the other students – only with themselves to get as good as they can get. That’s our philosophy. We look at our students as colleagues from day one – not students. The student is our future wingman.”

The educational environment
Cadet Christian Johansson, a future JAS 39 pilot – who already had civil flying experience before applying, tells “The environment in the school is completely different from the civil world and even the other branches of the military where you get called by your last name. As soon as you got here, the first thing the teachers asked was: What’s your nickname? That kind of sets the standard of how we speak to each other here and how the environment is.”

Cadet Robin Norén, a future TP 102 Gulfstream pilot, who also has civil flying experience, adds “The whole idea is to build up a relationship where you feel safe, where you don’t have anything to lose by telling the truth, because that becomes dangerous as seen in the other branches where you get a penalty every time you do something wrong, even if it’s not your intention, then later on you won’t tell what happened because you are afraid of the potential penalty.

Here we want everyone to be comfortable to tell everybody what happened, so we can all learn from our mistakes. We even discuss family relation subjects with our teachers. It’s a really trustworthy environment.”


Cadet Johansson continues, “In the civil world you have grades and here you either pass or you don’t. You never see on paper how good or bad you fly. The Swedish Air Force dropped the grades in the seventies because it starts a competition on who is the best pilot. We don’t know who’s best because it doesn’t matter. I felt that in the civil pilot school that everybody was more on their own because you should get the best grades to get the best job for yourself. You didn’t really care about each other, you were friends, but you didn’t really care.

Here it’s totally different, we really care for each other. If someone has a bad day, we all learn from it and we don’t judge. We help each other to go from there to the next level.”
“As soon as you got here, the first thing the teachers asked was: What’s your nickname?
A Sk 60, flies high above the Swedish midland around Linköping

The ‘office’ of all the pilot students of the Swedish Air Force
Helping each other
“The students help each other out within the student community and they wouldn’t do that if they were competing against each other to be the best in the class, just to be sure to fly the type that they want – because they want that seat.” says Capt. Bragvad.

Cadet Johansson, adds “If a student fails, the entire class fails. We are all colleagues and we will work well together in the future, and the best thing is to help your colleague out, so you know you’ll have the best wingman you can get.”

“The instructors are very happy when the students makes it and concerned when they don’t. That’s how I want all my instructor pilots to be; He wants the students to succeed, he wants them to make it, and if the students doesn’t make it, he’s concerned. The instructor pilots care about their students and that’s where we want to be.” says Capt. Bragvad.

Psychological training
Capt. Bragvad continues, “We have studied the psychology of how the brain works. You don’t learn when you are forced and stressed. We don’t want to stress and put pressure on the students; the students do this all by themselves!”

Cadet Norén continues, “It’s not a strict environment. The teachers expect us to be prepared and to have read-up the lessons. We talk a lot about the flying window. Half an hour to an hour before we go to the aircraft, we should leave our cell phones alone and sit by ourselves to think through what’s going to happen on the upcoming flight during the lesson. I never had this in the civil world. Yes, we needed to be prepared but it wasn’t that strict. You could sit with your phone, watch YouTube or what you wanted to do beforehand, then you went out flying and evaluating.

It’s very different here, as a lot of time is spent on preparation and evaluation, but it’s not strict in a way where you need to spend a certain amount of time on it. You need to figure out what works for you – your way.

Take the debriefs as an example, it’s a very open environment where we all talk it through and the teacher maybe gives us a few recommendations or sometimes they just say that you have learned a lot today and just continue forwards.”

The only trainer in the Swedish Air Force, the Sk 60
“The teachers are not judges, but coaches, helping us getting through in the best way possible.”
‘No blame’-culture
Cadet Johansson, adds “Debriefs are really an exercise in this ‘No blame’-culture, you admit to all your faults and all the mistakes you made. This is very helpful as this is done within the class and not just in a student to teacher talk. You can listen to what others have just done which is maybe what you are going to do tomorrow and the student for example says that I did this, but I should rather have done it like this. Next time you’ll think about this and use the experience that the other student shared with you. Then the next day when you are in the exact same situation, you remember what he said and you learn from their experience.

The teachers are not judges, but coaches, helping us getting through in the best way possible.”


Cadet Norén continues, “We have a lot of sessions that are not about flying, but about what’s best for a pilot such as health, training and physiology, what not to eat and what’s best to eat. It’s been very helpful. You really feel here at the flying school, that they want you to have the best opportunity to become as good as you can be.

We are not in a rush, we are enjoying it here. I think this year at the flying school has been the best year of my life. If they tell me that I should stay here for two more years, I would sing a song, grab a beer and celebrate. It’s absolutely amazing here. I have been inspired by being here and I hope that I one day can come here as a teacher. Nothing is really a problem here, we do everything together.

We have become best friends within the class and are really tight connected.”

The Nordic culture
Capt. Bragvad explains “It has something to do with the Nordic culture. I’m not sure it would work for all cultures around the world, like if you have a very segregated society. A rank here doesn’t mean so much and that’s intentional.

The philosophy is that the student has one instructor the first year. This instructor is then responsible for that student and an instructor usually only has a maximum of two students. This is to build a strong relationship between the instructor pilot and the student because that helps in learning. If you feel safe and you feel that this instructor really wants you to make it, then you won’t focus on what the instructor thinks, the only thing you need to focus on is getting as good as possible.

If the student and instructor relationship doesn’t really work, we don’t try to change the student, but we’ll change the instructor to another instructor. The two personalities needs to match.

We do not have grades, so you can’t compare yourself with your classmates to see if you are doing better. We write words, describing how the session went instead of giving you a grade. It makes it a bit harder for the instructor pilot as they need to be more specific when writing in this diary; what went good, what went bad, where the student has to develop etc.

The grade doesn’t, in our opinion, make a better a student.”
concludes Capt. Bragvad.

Two pairs of students and instructors are allready evaluating their flight,
on the way back to the squadron building
Motivation on the walls of Luftstridsskolan; “You are here for the sole reason, you will be a pilot in the Air Force and defend your country.”

The pilot course
The student already knows which type they’re going to fly once they’re accepted which helps in different ways as described earlier. Another advantage is that the structure and flow of the education can be adjusted to be more specific about the type they’re going to fly.

The first two years of the education is similar for all students. The students starts with a standard armed forces Junior Cadet education which lasts for six months. This is a basic armed forces education, which isn’t only for future air force pilots, but for all branches of the armed forces.

They’ll then start on the National Defense College Aviation (NDCA) program once they’re Junior Cadets. The first one and a half years of the three year programme is spent at the Military Academy Karlberg in Stockholm, where they learn the theory in tactics, military techniques, leadership, as well as physical training.

Once the first year at the academy is completed, the students get split for the next year. The fixed wing students will head to Luftstridsskolan at Malmen Air Base, close to Linköping. Here they’ll go to 1st squadron, the basic fixed wing training squadron, flying the Sk 60. Rotary wing students will go to Bückeburg in Germany for their basic rotary training, flying the Eurocopter EC135.

Bachelor degree in war science
After this year of flying, the students head back to the academy in Stockholm to complete the NDCA programme with a six month officer’s exam. This will make the students officers in the Swedish Armed Forces, earning them a bachelor degree in war science, a degree that’s of equal value to any other degree from civilian university.

The fixed wing students then return to Luftstridsskolan at Malmen to join 2nd squadron to begin their advanced flying training. The transport pilots will stay in 2nd squadron for five months before heading off to civil aviation training in Ljungbyhed, then heading to their future squadron for type rating and combat readiness training (CRT).

The fighter pilots will stay in 2nd squadron for eleven months to complete their advanced fixed wing training, all done in the Sk 60. They’ll then go to F 7 at Såtenäs for six months for the conversion training (CT) to the JAS 39 Gripen. Here they learn all about the fast jet, as well as all the avionics, sensors etc of the Gripen. Once they have cleared the CT, they’ll head to their future squadron for CRT. The student don’t pick their own squadron, as this varies from year to year between the three Swedish fighter wings: F 7, F 17, and F 21.

The rotary students will return to Bückeburg for further six months of flying training which then concludes their basic flight training. They’ll then join up with 3rd squadron, the advanced training Rotary-Wing, at Luftstridsskolan. Here they’ll fly the HKP 15 (AgustaWestland AW109) for the next two years.

“When you have a fast, dynamic jet, things can go wrong and with the speeds they’re flying.”
Break, break! A pair of Sk 60 breaks away
The iconic silhouette of the Sk 60, during sunset

Fixed Wing
The basic flying training starts off with theoretical training combined with some simulator work. Within the first 3-4 weeks the students will find themselves in the Sk 60 for their first flight. The Swedish Armed Forces might be the only air force in the world to train its fixed wing pilots in a jet from day one, which is an advantage, as you can do everything with the jet trainer from day one.

The theoretical training, combined with simulator training continues, as they are flying. The students have around two hours of theoretical training for every flight they do. One flight can include multiple theoretical sessions, making the ratio of theoretical to flying larger.

The basic flying training consists of simple handling, aerobatics, instrument (Instrument Flight Rules – IFR), navigation, formation etc. The students go solo quite late, usually after around thirty hours of flying, compared to around fifteen hours before reaching solo when you’re flying a prop plane. When you have a fast, dynamic jet, things can go wrong and with the speeds they’re flying, they can go wrong fast. Having the pilot get to thirty hours before going solo, makes a difference and keeps everyone safe.

The side-by-side configuration of the Sk 60 has its advantages in the early stage of training, making the interaction between the student and instructor a lot easier, where the instructor gets a lot of information about the student by just looking at him. The instructor is able to monitor the students, making notes on where their hands and feet are, where the student is looking, and how he or she behaves.

When all the fixed wing students are back after completing the NDCA program, they’ll start of the advanced flying training together but they will be split up after a short while. The transport students will get a short taste of the air-to-air role, but will never do it solo. They will stay at Malmen doing advanced flying training for five months, before moving to the Trafikflyghögskolan in Ljungbyhed, to train for multi crew, multi-engine types and to get the required commercial pilot license (CPL).

Travel to Finland
Once done in Ljungbyhed, the students will move on to their assigned squadrons to get their CT. In the squadrons, the pilots will get the type rating in the type they are going to fly as well as getting their combat readiness training.

The fighter pilots stay for eleven months with 2nd squadron, doing simulated fighter and recce missions, air-to-air, and air-to-ground missions, NATO-procedures, as well as a “Tour Europe”. The “Tour Europe” is a flight to a European country, where the student needs to do all the planning, coordination, approvals, permits etc. to facilitate such a flight with a Swedish military aircraft. This teaches the students about all of the processes such a flight requires.

Once the transport pilots have left Malmen, the fighter pilots begin their extended air-to-air training. The air-to-air training is very advanced and creates a high demand on the students as they go solo without limits.

The students will also go to Finland to take part in the final air-to-air exercise at the Finnish flying training school – a Red Flag event for students. This is a relatively new concept, which illustrates the strong bond and cooperation between the Nordic countries.

The fighter students will also go to Flygvapnets Luftstridssimuleringscentrum (air combat simulation center), FLSC, in Stockholm, to do familiarization flights in the JAS 39 Gripen simulator. The FLSC consists of eight simulators, all linked up, giving them the opportunity to do a 4 vs 4 in the simulators. This gives the students a hint of what’s coming, before they head out to the F 7 wing at Såtenäs to conduct their JAS 39 training to become the new generation of Swedish fighter pilots.
“The students will also go to Finland to take part in the final air-to-air exercise at the Finnish flying training school – a Red Flag event for students.
On approuch for runway 19 at Malmen Air Base. This is the view that the students face when returning from a traning sortie.

Rotary Wing
The course for the rotary students is a lot different when compared to the fixed wing students. The rotary students start their basic flying training in Bückeburg in Germany, flying the Eurocopter EC135 and covering navigation, IFR (CPL), mountain flying, basic night vision goggles (NVG) training. There is one Swedish Qualified Flying Instructor (QFI) based at Bückeburg.

The basic flying training for the rotary students is longer than the basic flying training for the fixed wing students, as they will return to Bückeburg to continue the basic flying training when the fixed wing students return to Malmen for their advanced flying training. This means that the students will get 115 flight hours in Germany before heading permanently to Malmen.

When the transport students leave Malmen to go to Ljungbyhed, the rotary students begins their advanced flying training in the 3rd squadron, and the 14 QFI, at Malmen, where they will fly the HKP 15 – AgustaWestland AW109. The advanced flying training consists of low level flying, mountain flying, formation training, advanced NVG and finally solo-flights.

The rotary students will stay eleven months at Malmen for their advanced flying training, gaining them an additional 110 flying hours. Once done with their training, the students will move from the 3rd squadron to get their CRT. The HKP 14 pilots will get CRT in France, HKP 15 pilots will stay at Malmen and HKP 16 pilots in the USA. Once they have their CRT, they’ll join their future squadron.

Getting the Sk 60 ready for a new sortie
Instructor courses
Besides having the student pilot courses, Luftstridsskolan also runs other courses, one of them being the Qualified Flying Instructor course (QFI). This course trains pilots from different Swedish front line squadrons to become qualified flying instructors, which gets them back where their flying career started.

The Swedish QFI course takes a different approach to many other countries QFI courses. The most noticeable difference is in the first two segments of the course. Here they have a lot of theoretical training about psychology and pedagogy as well as a “live practice” segment, which really tests the future instructors to their limit. This is to get the instructors to have the right knowledge, mind-set and skills to train pilots and to give them a chance to practice this. The course turns the future instructors into coaches rather than judges.

It’s important that the instructors don’t judge a student for having a different personality to their own. This helps them to become as objective as they possibly can be. If a sortie is “failed”, it is as much a failure for the student as for the instructor. In most other countries instructors just control that the student is doing the right things. Instead the focus is on the learning process and trying to create an environment that is optimal for learning.

The student and the instructor are in it together and their goal is to get through it together. This method has three pillars: the relationship between student and instructor, communication, and self-confidence. It’s a very open relationship between the students and the instructors, and it has to be like this, as they don’t want to end up in a “higher officer and cadet” situation, where the cadet is afraid to speak to the higher officer. Students and teachers can say anything, every right and wrong thing they do, every thought they have, absolutely anything.

This is where they build the foundation of the future pilots, via the future instructors. The instructor needs to build the students self-confidence as much as they can. It is scientifically proven that confidence makes better learning possible and that if you learn during stress you don’t get the deep learning process.

You’ll always need some amount of pressure, but the Swedish Air Force makes sure never to pressure the students too much, by understanding the cone of stress, where there is a fine balance between the levels of stress you have and how well you perform. Once they learn the elements under the right amount of pressure, then it’s going to be how they do it by instinct. When the students later come under stress in a live war situation, then they know how to handle the situation as they have already had the experience and instinct for it.

Visual, Auditory and Tactile
The instructor pilots have to evaluate and adapt to student’s personality and learning style. This is an important skill for the instructor to master. If the student and instructor are too alike, they might not be a match as some might be too much of a perfectionist, where the opposite would be chaotic. It should be a fine balance, where the students and instructors line up mentally. The instructors are instructed in the three learning styles; Visual, Auditory and Tactile so they can adapt to the way that the student learns the best. These important skills are the first that the instructors must learn and develop.

After this basic training, they’ll head into the “Live practice” segment, where they take volunteers, more or less “from the street” with no previous flying or military experience. The instructors are then supposed to teach them how to fly within three weeks. They will fly once every day from day two. The instructors have to put theory into practice and really adapt and show what they have learned.

The volunteers selected are based on the instructor’s knowledge, to get the person least similar to the instructor as possible. This is done to challenge the instructor as much as possible and to get them in the worst-case scenario from the beginning to see what they are capable of.

The pair will then fly special sorties that are known to be confusing in terms of communication between the instructor and the student to test the instructor’s abilities to teach, observe and communicate with students. It’s a very intensive three weeks, as they make mistakes and learn each day, giving the instructors the equivalent of almost a year of experience in just three weeks. Compared to talking about it, doing theoretical practice, and then getting a real student, this is an effective way of training instructors.

This will, in the end, give the instructors the mental tools they need to teach future pilots to be autonomous and have the self-confidence to make those split second decisions when they sit alone in the cockpit of a fighter jet in a war situation.
The sun is setting behind these Sk 60s, before they return to base

Sk 60
The Swedish Air Force bought a total of 150 aircraft back in 1965 to replace the aging De Havilland Vampire fleet. The aircraft were divided into three principal variants:
  • The Sk 60A for training and liaison duties using a four-seat configuration.
  • The Sk 60B for light attack missions in a twin side-by-side seating configuration.
  • The Sk 60C dual-role attack and reconnaissance aircraft equipped with various cameras in the aircraft’s nose.

Today the Swedish Air Force flies the Sk 60A and Sk 60B models, using them for training and liaison duties. The first student pilots started flying the Sk 60 in July 1967, making 2017 the 50th anniversary of the Sk 60, making the workhorse of the Swedish Air Force fixed-wing pilot school an old lady.

“Only time will tell what the Swedish Air Force and Luftstridsskolan will end up with, if it is one aircraft replacing the Sk 60 for either basic and advanced flying training or a two type aircraft configuration.”
The final break of the day, for this pair of Sk 60
The future
SAAB received a contract in December 2008 to extend the support of operations of the Sk 60s in the Swedish Air Force trainer fleet up to mid-2017. This has then been extended to mid-2020.

The majority of the Swedish Sk 60s are based at Luftstridsskolan in Malmen with a number of planes throughout the three air bases too, F 7 Såtenäs, F 17 Kallinge and F 21 Luleå. All of the Sk 60s that are not at Malmen will be moved from their base during the summer of 2017, to Malmen as time is running out for the airframes and the Air Force need to concentrate on getting all the hours possible from these aircraft to train the future pilots of the Swedish Air Force.

What the future will bring is currently uncertain, as a request for information (RFI) was issued in April 2015, by the Defense Materiel Administration for a new Military Flying Training System to provide long term basic and advanced training fleet functions. The advanced trainer requirements specify the presence of an embedded training capability including simulated radar and weapons use, as well as tactical displays in the cockpit resembling fourth and fifth-generation jet fighter aircraft.

Replacement aircraft, such as the Alenia Aermacchi M-346, BAE Systems Hawk, Embraer Super Tucano and Pilatus PC-21 have been suggested. SAAB and Pilatus Aircraft signed a memorandum of understanding to offer the PC-21 to the Swedish Air Force.

Only time will tell what the Swedish Air Force and Luftstridsskolan will end up with, if it is one aircraft replacing the Sk 60 for either basic and advanced flying training or a two type aircraft configuration.

A huge thanks to Luftstridsskolan and especially Capt. Jan Westman, Capt. Magnus Bragvad and Major Michael Rosenquist for making this article possible.

Northern Edge – 2017

Northern Edge 2017


Northern Edge 2017 saw 6,000 personnel, and approximately 200 aircraft participating,
from U.S. military units from both the continental U.S., the Pacific.
BY: SØREN NIELSEN
Northern Edge 2017
The majority of the lakes were still frozen and the mountains were still covered in snow, when dozens of 4th and 5th generation fighter jets, together with surveillance, electronic warfare, tankers and transport planes, from across the U.S. military took to the skies over Alaska on 1st of May 2017, as Northern Edge 2017 (NE17) kicked off.

With Spring appearing early May in Alaska it would mean the lakes wouldn’t remain frozen for too long. And with the long hours of light and great weather, NE17 now had the right training conditions.

NE17 was one in a series of U.S. Pacific Command exercises in 2017 – which all have the same goal; to prepare the joint forces to respond to crises in the Indo-Asia-Pacific region. The exercises are designed to sharpen participants’ tactical combat skills, to improve command, control and communication relationships, and also to develop interoperable plans and programs across the joint force.

NE17 saw 6,000 personnel participating from U.S. military units stationed in the continental United States, and from U.S. installations in the Pacific, as well as approximately 200 aircraft from all the services. The participants served as part of a joint task force, practicing tasks associated with joint operations.

Major participating units included U.S. Pacific Command, Alaskan Command, U.S. Pacific Fleet, Pacific Air Forces, Marine Corps Forces Pacific, U.S. Army Pacific, Air Combat Command, Air Mobility Command, Air Force Material Command, Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve and U.S. Naval Reserve.

As Col. David Mineau, Commander of the 354th Fighter Wing, explained:
“The different U.S. forces are gathered to sharpen the tactics, techniques, procedures, command and control, and the interoperability with each other, against the most advanced, and the most complicated scenario that they can go face.”
“The different U.S. forces are gathered to sharpen the tactics, techniques, procedures, command and control, and the interoperability with each other.”
A packed ramp with fighters at JBER during NE17

The newest and most advance airplane in the USMC inventory, the F-35B
Still maintaining real world capacity
The majority of the planes were split between the two air force bases, Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson (JBER) to the south, and Eielson AFB to the north. Besides the local aggressors and tankers, Eielson saw additional tanker support, as well as two air force units on base. The majority of the planes were placed at JBER. Fast jets, surveillance, and electronic warfare, tankers and transport units from the marines, air force and navy had JBER as their temporary home during the exercise.

“Right now we have one runway on each base, so there’s a limit on the number of aircrafts we can actually launch and recover at anyone time. But the other thing, and that’s a very positive aspect of the training; we would expect if we would operate in a large-scale conflict, that we would have to operate from a number of different air bases, and you could imagine, how they would sit there and depart, and we would have to synchronize in terms of times, so they would arrive at the same place at the same time, and orchestrate the exercise.” said Col. Christopher Niemi, Commander of the 3rd Wing, to illustrate the challenges the planners faced during the exercise, as they would in a real world conflict.

The massive training ground
Even though most of the local Alaskan units participated in the exercise, the units were still ready to handle any real world event that would come up, as Col. George Dietrich, Commander of JBER and the 673d Air Base Wing illustrated: “So, the exercise aside, here at JBER we’re always going to be ready to respond to any real world event. If we had a call today, we would still be able to do that, despite the exercise going on. The exercise gives us the opportunity to hone those skills even a little bit better.”

Large scale radar/anti-radar and electronic countermeasures training can be conducted at the vast Joint Pacific Alaska Range Complex (JPARC) where NE17 took place. To cover all scenarios, and give the participants the opportunity to achieve their goals, a couple of large training areas in Alaska were used.

“It’s a great venue for training, we have the largest range space available to almost anybody in the world, certainly in the United States, to practice techniques, tactics and procedures, not only for our airmen, but also for our soldiers, marines and sailors as well.” said Lt. Gen. Ken Wilsbach, Alaskan Command and 11th Air Force Commander.

The entire JPARC airspace covers around 157.000 square kilometers over land in the southern and central part of Alaska, as well as a separate area of about 130.000 square kilometers over the Gulf of Alaska were used during NE17. Adding to this, a special corridor between the two airspaces was set up by the FAA, that allowed the participating aircraft to travel from one airspace to the other, without getting into conflict with civilian traffic.

Col. Niemi illustrated; “We don’t have the opportunity to operate in airspaces that we potentially would be in, in a conflict. In the course of a conflict, we would expect that there probably wouldn’t be a lot of airline traffic. Work could be in an area that’s very wide open, that’s not heavily populated, like the lower 48 States are, and so Northern Edge with it’s expansive airspace here in Alaska gives us kind of a peak into the opportunity, and allows us to bring all these assets in, both other air force units, navy units, marine units, and integrate them all together in one place and time in the exercise.”

The size matters, and with the size comes opportunities, that is not achievable in other places: “We have a great opportunity because of the size of range – to train and maximize our assets, because of the space, and the freedom of maneuver that the large space allows.” explained Lt. Gen. Wilsbach, and added; ”It’s the size of Florida!”
“It’s a great venue for training, we have the largest range space available.”
A F-16CG from Misawa high above the Alaskan Range

Training inexperienced and experienced crew
About 50% of the crews were inexperienced and used this exercise to gain experience, and learning these lessons for the first time. The experienced crews were mostly in a leading role, giving the inexperienced crews the lessons, and also improving their own leading capabilities.

“We have specific mission objectives on every sortie.” said Lt. Gen. Wilsbach, “We are doing some experiments during this Northern Edge where we have additional new hardware and new software brand new to the forces, that we’re trialling during the scenario, so we can learn those tactics, techniques and procedures. Much of that is classified, so we won’t publish what we’re learning, other than to say that we’re improving capabilities overall.”

Strike Eagles from Seymour Johnson AFB gets it’s last chance checks done,
before another NE17 sortie
The classic good guy against bad
The battlefield is the classic good guy against bad, seeing the good guys on different missions, trying to defeat or hold back the bad guys.

“It’s red vs. blue. The red forces’ side is primary made up by aggressors – predominantly airmen that have the expertise to simulate threat tactics, techniques and procedures. We have aircraft, we have surface to air missiles, cyber, and many other things they simulate.” said Lt. Gen. Wilsbach.

It’s not only the F-16s of the 18th Aggressor Squadron at Eielson AFB, which made up the red force. The other participants of the exercise would also act as aggressors, where a typical mission could be ten aggressor F-16s from the 18th Aggressors Squadron, supplemented by another six F-15Es from Seymour Johnson AFB, and six F-16CGs from Misawa AFB. It didn’t have to be all dedicated air superiority units taking the role as the red force.

Almost all of the participating air units would split their time between doing red air and blue air. Besides the military assets, a number of civilian airplanes were taking part in the exercise. These civilian airplanes were equipped with sensors and jammers, etc. to add complexity to the training. To simulate different threats and scenarios, making the blue air training even more difficult.

Continued development of 5th generation fighters
NE17 saw 5th generation fighters, with the air forces F-22s side-by-side with the marines F-35s, integrating with 4th generation fighters, such as variants of the F-15, F-16, and F/A-18.

It was not all training, but also a continued development of the integration of the 5th gen. aircraft, such as the F-35, as Lt. Gen. Wilsbach explained:
“We are all learning what the F-35 can do, including the marines. So it’s of great benefit to see how all of it comes together – army, navy, air force and the marines – over both land and water, all of what is being practiced. So it’ll be a tremendous benefit at the end of this exercise.”

It was not all integrations and crew training of the 5th generation aircraft, but also further testing of the aircraft themself, both 4th and 5th generation. Having the aircraft loaded with new hardware and software saw them testing all new usages of the planes, as well as operating the newest weapon system in a large-scale operation, which brings great possibilities, to find the surprises, limitations and opportunities of the planes.

Col. Niemi, illustrated: “When you acquire a new weapon system, like the F-35, then it’s not like going in and buying a car, where there’s not really a lot of surprises. We have a very rigorous test and development program, but the reality is that when you are dealing with something completely new and complex as the F-35, despite our best efforts, there’s going to be some surprises and we’re going to learn some things.”

Col. Niemi got an extensive experience from the F-22 test program, which was used during NE17 with the F-35s; “I was fortunate enough to be involved in the early F-22 test program, and some of the ideas of how we were going to employ the aircraft turned out to be exactly spot on, but to be absolutely frank with you, some of the ideas were way off the mark and we didn’t know that until we had the opportunity to integrate, and there were some strings that we discovered, that we didn’t anticipate. There were also some limitations that we became aware of, that we had to mitigate. By working with the F-35 we are able to sit there and realise those, so that we can be better operating in an operational environment in the future.”

The continuation of the training with the F-35 and F-22 carried on after the exercise, where the marines of the VMFA-121 would stay for an additional few weeks, before returning to Japan. This was to do dedicated tests side-by-side with the F-22s of the 3rd wing at JBER, and the 18th Aggressors at Eielson, building on top of the experience gain during the two week exercise.
A thirsty local Alaskan F-22 Raptor gets some gas, before it re-joins the battle

“Red Flag is a very good exercise, but Northern Edge builds on that, and takes it to the next level. We have had Northern Edges over the years, and we have been able to continue to build on that, and improve it each year, and that’s what we are doing again this year.”
Northern Edge 17, was the first time with participation of the U-2 from Beale AFB
Better than Red Flag
The Northern Edge exercises are massive in scale, both with the physical training areas used, and the number of players involved. To get all the involved players aligned and up and running for the short time, of the two weeks the exercise was running – this being; the ground crews, pilots, sailors on their ships, army foot soldiers on the ground, to the mission planners etc., wasn’t an easy task, but it’s something that reflects how real combat operations works, and making this exercise as close to real combat operations, as possible.

With the exercise coming to and end, Col. Niemi concluded that Northern Edge was a success, and was as close to a real combat operation as possible:
“I was fortunate enough to be here (Alaska red.) from 2007 to 2011, and during that time frame, we had three Northern Edge exercises and I flew in two of those. Each year we continued to build on that, make it better and generally bigger.

When that younger pilot, or that younger operator, gets into a combat environment for the first time, they have that same feeling like I did in 1999, where it’s comfortable to them because they’ve seen it before and they know what to expect, and they know how to deal with it.

My comment, the first time I flew in Northern Edge, was: This is the closest exercise that we have, to combat operations, even surpassing Red Flag, for numerous reasons.

Red Flag is a very good exercise, but Northern Edge builds on that, and takes it to the next level. We have had Northern Edges over the years, and we have been able to continue to build on that, and improve it each year, and that’s what we are doing again this year.”


This edition of Northern Edge saw the last time that Alaskan Command was in charge of it, and the future Northern Edge exercises were handed over to the U.S. Pacific Command, which will lead the 2019 edition of the exercise.

A big thank you to Alaskan Command, and especially USAF Capt. Anastasia Schmidt, USNR Lt. Mikel Weigel and USAF Lt. Kellie Rizer for making this article possible.

#03 of 2017

This issue features an in-depth piece about the USAF 18th Aggressor Squadron, and a feature about the last remaining Tornado squadron of the Italian Air Force.

#02 of 2017

The second issue of FLYMAG in 2017 features among other reports from three exercises, INIOHOS, Cope Tiger, and the big US exercise – Northern Edge 2017.

#01 of 2017

The first issue of FLYMAG in 2017 features The last Sioux – The Ramex Spirit, Peak Performers, Winter Hide, USCG San Diego amongst others.

Super base – Ørland

Royal Norwegian Air Force – Ørland


Located on the west coast of Norway, Ørland Hovedflystasjon, Ørland Air Base, is one of two Norwegian F-16 bases,
the other being Bodø further north on the coast.
BY: SØREN AUGUSTESEN
Super base – Ørland Air Base
Located on the west coast of Norway, Ørland Hovedflystasjon, Ørland Air Base, is one of two Norwegian F-16 bases, the other being Bodø further north on the coast.

Ørland Air base was built in 1941 by the then occupying German troops in Norway. The reason for building the air base was to enable the German Luftwaffe to attack allied convoys sailing supplies to the Russian harbor in Murmansk.

The first German aircraft to arrive at the base were Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condors, and in June of 1942 a squadron of Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive-bombers were deployed to the base. The complement of aircraft at the base were further expanded when first a squadron of Messerschmitt Bf 109s and later a squadron of Focke-Wulf Fw 190 fighters arrived at the base.

This RNoAF F-16 taxiing back to it’s HAS, where the ground crew awaits it.
“In 1950 the Norwegian government decided to reopen the base and make it a permanent deployable base.”
After the war
When the German troops in Norway surrendered, they left behind a fully armed and defendable airfield, complete with docks and infrastructure.

After the war, the first Norwegian aircraft to be located at Ørland, was a squadron for Spitfires, but already in 1946 the base was closed down and all the wooden buildings torn down.

The woods were then transported north, to help rebuild Finnmark, which had been almost completely destroyed by the Germans. In the following years the base were sporadically used for exercises until 1950. In 1950 the Norwegian government decided to reopen the base and make it a permanent deployable base. In 1952 a new runway was constructed, and in 1954 the base was expanded to handle NATO forces.

In 1954 the 338 Squadron was relocated from Sola airbase to Ørland, flying the F-84E Thunderjet. Today the squadron flies the F-16A/B Fighting Falcon, and it remains the only fighter squadron on the base. In August of 1970 a detachment from 330 Squadron arrived flying the Grumman HU-16 Albatross. In 1973 330 Squadron converted to the Westland Sea King, which they still fly today. The squadron is responsible for SAR operations in the area.

The squadrons
In 1983 the airbase was updated to accommodate NATO’s E-3A Sentry AWACS fleet, which flies out of Geilenkirchen air base in Germany. Ørland is the only Forward Operations Location (FOL) for the NATO AWACS fleet in northern Europe, and E-3 Sentry aircrafts regularly deploy to the base.

Today the base is home to the following flying squadrons:
  • 138 Air Wing
    • 338 Squadron (F-16A/B MLU)
  • 330 Squadron (Westland Sea King – dethatched from Sola AB)
  • NATO Airborne Early Warning Force, FOL (E-3A Sentry)

338 Squadron
338 squadron was activated on 1954 at Sola air base, but moved to Ørland airbase that same year. The first aircraft the squadron flew was the Republic F-84E Thunderjet. In 1955 they swapped the E model with the F-84G, a jet they flew until 1960, when the unit converted to the North American F-86F Sabre. They continued flying the F-86F until 1967, when they began flying the Northrop F-5A Freedom Fighter. After almost 20 years of flying the F-5, the squadron converted to the F-16A Fighting Falcon in 1986.

When the squadron converted to the F-16 in 1986, they were the last of the then four Norwegian fighter squadrons to do so. Despite being the last squadron to convert to the F-16, they were the first squadron to begin flying the Mid-life Update (MLU) versions of the F-16. In late 1998, early 1999 the squadron began converting to the MLU F-16 coming of the conversion line at the Kjeller depot.

With the introduction of the M2 software tape during 2002, the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) decided to integrate the PANTERA targeting pod onto their F-16s, thereby introducing a state-of-the-art targeting system to their F-16 fleet, which would allow for pinpoint bombing accuracy.

The RNoAF was the first F-16 user to introduce the PANTERA pods, the export version of the Lockheed Sniper pod, to the MLU F-16s, and it clearly showed the advantages of this modern pod compared to the older Low Altitude Navigation and Targeting Infrared for Night (LATIRN) system.
The pilot steps into his ‘office’, while on duty for NATO Baltic Air Policing in Lithuania.

A RNoAF F-16BM goes low level in a Norwegian fjord.
Mounted Cueing System
With the MLU M3 and M4 software updates, the RNoAF decided to introduce a new and more modern air-to-air missile into its inventory. After a competition, where a number of missiles, including the AIM-9X Sidewinder and the German designed IRIS-T missile participated, the IRIS-T missile was selected.

The missile takes advantage of the Helmet Mounted Cueing System used by the Norwegian F-16 pilots. As with the PANTERA targeting pod, the RNoAF became the first F-16 user to integrate the IRIS-T missile on the F-16.

In 2006 the Norwegian military decided that it would be easier to pool all F-16s into one unit under the Forsvarets Logistikk Organisasjon (Air Force Logistic Organisation). This unit now controls all the F-16s in the RNoAF, and F-16s are dispersed amongst all the F-16 squadrons according to their actual needs.

330 Squadron
330 squadron is the RNoAF helicopter unit responsible for military and civilian search and rescue (SAR). The unit’s home base is at Sola Air Base in southern Norway, but the unit has detachments at Rygge, Florø, Ørland, Bodø and Banak. Beside the unit’s main mission of SAR, it also performs duties as air ambulance, disaster relief and special operations support.

The squadron was formed on April 25, 1941 as 330 (Norwegian) Squadron under the Royal Air Force (RAF) Coastal Command, and base at RAF Reykjavik, as German forces at that time had occupied Norway. Here they were equipped with 18 Northrop N-3PB aircraft, and were initially tasked with providing arctic convoy escort. The N-3PB proved highly unsuited for this role however, and the squadron started focussing more on anti submarine sweeps and providing an air ambulance service from various forward deployed locations around Iceland.

In June 1942, the unit received the first of a total of six Consolidated PBY-5A Catalina flying boats, and at the same time they retained six of their N-3PBs. On January 23, 1943, parts of 330 squadron were relocated to RAF Oban I Scotland, with the rest following on June 11, 1943. During their time on Iceland, the squadron flew 4379 hours (3524 in N-3PBs and 885 in the Catalinas).

Burner take off! Ørland is surrendered by water, which attracting a lot of birds. The F-16’s needs to go rather high just after take off to avoid collition with birds.
“Until the end of WW II, 330 squadron
flew over 12.000 hours from Scotland.”
Scotland
In Scotland the unit switched to the Short Sunderland flying boat. Being unable to buy these expensive aircraft themselves, the RAF lend twelve aircraft, six Mk II and six Mk III) to the squadron, while the Norwegians themselves paid the operating costs. While in Scotland, a 330 squadron detachment was set up at RAF Scatsta on Shetland.

They continued to fly the same role of submarine sweeps, search and rescue and convoy escorts. Until the end of WW II, 330 squadron flew over 12.000 hours from Scotland, carrying out 655 submarine sweeps, 50 convoy escorts and 22 SAR missions. After the end of the war 330 squadron, now flying Sunderlands Mk Vs, returned to Norway and set up base at the water aerodrome at Sola Air Station, flying daily routes to Bergen Airport, Sandviken and Trondheim – almost flying more like an airliner than a military unit.

Up until 1968 Norway did not have a dedicated SAR unit, but rather relied on various units equipped with suitable airframes to perform SAR as a secondary mission. This changed in 1968, when a private company was hired to operate two Sikorsky S-61 out of Sola and Bodø, while the government decided how best to set up a dedicated SAR unit.

In 1970 ten Westland Sea Kings were ordered, and 330 squadron were assigned the SAR role. Headquarter was at Bodø Main Air Station, with four flights; A-flight at Bodø, B-flight at Banak, C-flight at Ørland and D-flight at Sola, with two airframes in each flight. The squadron started operations on April 25, 1973.

On November 8, 2013, it was announced that the AugustaWestland AW101 had been selected as a replacement for the Sea King and a contract for 16 helicopters, with an option for six more, were signed. The helicopters are scheduled to be delivered between 2017 and 2020.

NATO AWACS FOL
In 1983 Ørland AB was established as a Forward Operating Location (FOL) for NATO’s AWACS fleet of E-3 Sentry aircraft. Apart from providing the Sentry fleet with a base of operations in northern Europe, the base is also used for training flights, which helps in reducing the number of flights going in and out of the Sentry fleets home base at Geilenkirchen in Germany.

Since 2000, an average of over 170 AWACS sorties have been flown per year from Ørland, almost one flight every other day. A total of 33 personnel, 32 military and one civilian, work at the FOL and support the deployed AWACS crews during their stay at Ørland.

International Deployments
338 Squadron is part of NATO’s Rapid Reaction Force, and since 1999 they have been deployed on numerous international missions.

From March 23 until June 10 1999, RNoAF F-16s were deployed to Grazzanise AB in Italy to take part in Operation Allied Force. This was the first time since World War II that Norway had deployed fighters into action. The Norwegian F-16s were tasked with flying Combat Air Patrol (CAP) missions, since they did not send any of their new MLU updates F-16s.

The next time RNoAF F-16s were deployed on international missions were on October 1, 2002 when RNoAF F-16s were deployed to Manas AB in Kyrgyzstan to support the US led Operation Enduring Freedom. The F-16s remained at Manas until March 31, 2003.

On January 1 2005, four RNoAF F-16s deployed for the first time to Siauliai AB in Lithuania to take part in NATO Baltic Air Policing mission. The four aircraft flew from Siauliai until March 31, 2005. Since this initial deployment to Siauliai, RNoAF F-16s have performed the Baltic Air Policing mission two more times, from December 16, 2007 until March 15 2007 and from May 1, 2015 until September 1 2015, both times flying from Siauliai AB.
Operation Odyssey Dawn
As well as providing Air Policing over the Baltic, RNoAF F-16’s have also flown three times over Iceland during the NATO Iceland Air Policing and Surveillance mission. The first time was in 2009; second deployment was in 2011 and the last one in 2014.

The largest operation the RNoAF’s F-16’s have participated in was Operation Odyssey Dawn / Unified Protector. Six F-16’s were deployed to Souda AB in Greece from March 23, 2011 until July of 2011. In total the RNoAF F-16’s dropped over 500 precision bombs during the two campaigns.

The RNoAF F-16’s did not remain at Souda AB until the end of the conflict, but was withdrawn in early summer 2011 when less capacity was needed to end the conflict.

A RNoAF F-16 on air patrol in the Baltics

Getting ready for the F-35
In November of 2008 the Norwegian government selected the Lockheed F-35 Lighting II as the replacement for the aging fleet of F-16s. Having been a partner of the F-35 program since the System Development and Demonstration phase, it came as little surprise that the F-35 was chosen.

Norway placed an initial order for 52 F-35’s and as of late December 2016 they have funded the procurement of 22 of these. The first two F-35s were handed over to the Norwegian Air Force in late 2015 at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, where they will be used for pilot training.

The first Norwegian pilot took to the skies in an F-35 in September of 2015. Under current plans, the first F-35 will arrive in Norway in 2017, where they will gradually replace the F-16 fleet.

“Norway placed an initial order for 52 F-35’s.”
A RNoAF F-16 takes off with the burners lit.
 
The maintenance on the F-16s is done ‘in house’ at Ørland.

Only one super base
All the Norwegian F-35s will be stationed at Ørland AB. This means that once F-16 operations starts winding down in the early 2020s, Bodø AB will be closing down. Due to the geographical shape of Norway, a small Quick Reaction Alert detachment will set up at Evenes AB in the northern part of Norway, as the distance from Ørland to the far north of Norway is simply to great to cover from Ørland.

The plans to have the majority of the 52 F-35s on order based at Ørland, means that there is currently a massive expansion of facilities taking place at the base. New hangars and maintenance facilities are being built to accommodate the new jets, as well as buildings and offices for all the new pilots and squadron support staff coming to the base in the next few years.

So it is safe to say the Ørland will be at the heart for
the Royal Norwegian Air Force for many years to come.

Royal Danish Air Force – Fighting Falcons

Danish Falcons


We’ll take you on a look at the sole jet fighter in the Royal Danish Air Force through the past 30 years, the history, the current status and the future.
BY: SØREN AUGUSTESEN
Danish Falcons
In the early 1970s the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) started looking for a replacement for the three types of fighter aircraft then in service. The new fighter would have to replace the Lockheed F-104G Starfighter, the North American F-100D/F Super Sabre and the SAAB F-35 Draken. Under consideration were alternative fighters, the General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) F-16 Fighting Falcon, the SAAB JAS-37 Viggen and the Dassault Mirage F-1.

By the end of the competition, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was selected and in 1975, Denmark joined Belgium, Holland and Norway in an order for a total of 348 airframes from the United States. Of these, Denmark initially ordered 58 F-16s, consisting of 48 F-16As and 10 F-16Bs all build by SABCA in Belgium.

The first F-16B, serial number ET-204, was delivered to the RDAF on the January 18, 1980. Following the initial order of 58 airframes, a further eight F-16As and four F-16B were ordered in 1984. These were built by Fokker in Holland and delivered in 1988-89. In 1994, a further three F-16As were purchased and more were added in 1997 (three more A models and one B model). These last seven aircraft were all ex-USAF airframes.

This last purchase brought the total up to 77 airframes made up of 62 A models and 15 B models. Of the 77 airframes delivered, 39 were delivered as Block-10 aircraft with the remaining 38 airframes delivered as Block-15. As of June 2016, the RDAF have 44 F-16s left in service, comprised of three F-16AM Block-10, three F-16BM Block-10, 29 F-16AM Block-15 and eight F-16BM Block-15. The forty-fourth F-16 is ET210, F-16BM Block-10, which flies in the USA for the F-35 Lighting II test program.

Since the first delivery in 1980, the RDAF F-16s have been through various update programs, bringing new features and capabilities to the fleet, as well as extending their service life.

The pilot signals to the ground crew before taxi.
“By the end of the competition, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was selected and in 1975, Denmark joined Belgium, Holland and Norway in an order for a total of 348 airframes from the United States.”
Upgrades
The largest of these that the RDAF F-16s have been through is the Mid Life Upgrade (MLU) program which the RDAF joined from its onset in 1989 when the initial planning stages started. In total, the RDAF upgraded 48 F-16As and 13 F-16Bs. All RDAF F-16s were modified at the main F-16 depot at Aalborg Air Base in the northern part of Jutland.

Most of the RDAF F-16 remaining in service has been upgraded to the MLU 6.5 tape standard; except for the seven remaining Block-10 airframes, which have only been upgraded to MLU 4.3 tape. Because they are only Block-10, they do not have the strengthened nose wheel construction and they are unable to carry a targeting pod as well as not being able to fire the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile. These airframes are only used for training and as Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) aircraft but not for international missions.

In 1986, many other European users of the F-16 upgraded the Pratt & Whitney F100 PW200 engines to a modernised version namely, the PW-100-220E. However the Danish government decided not to join this engine upgrade. With the drawn out selection process for the F-16 replacement, it soon became clear that the original engines would not be able to see the F-16s through to their out-of-service date.

This meant that the RDAF in 2013 purchased 50 used F100 PW220E engines and these are currently being fitted to the RDAF F-16 fleet to keep the aircraft flying until their planned out-of-service date in 2024. Commanding officer of 730 Squadron, pilot name ‘STI’ said about the upgraded engines “The main advantages of the new -220E engines are more rapid thrust during take off, which means the aircraft gets airborne quicker, leaving more runway in case of an emergency. The engine also performs better in the air, which improves its effectiveness during air-to-air combat”.

With the F-16 replacement not expected to reach Full Operational Capability (FOC) until 2027, the RDAF F-16s are currently going through a structural life enhancement program, which aims at keeping the F-16s flying until at least 2024.

F-16 squadrons
The RDAF currently have two F-16 squadrons, 727 Squadron and 730 Squadron. No F-16s are assigned to either squadron. All F-16s are pooled together at the Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and jets are assigned to each fighter squadron on an “as needed” basic.

Denmark is part of the European Participating Air Forces, and both squadrons are assigned to the European Expeditionary Air Wing. In the last almost 20 years, RDAF F-16 has participated in numerous international missions and both squadrons now have a core of very experienced pilots, many of whom have more than 1000 hours in the F-16.

The main day-to-day mission of the Danish F-16s is the 24-hour Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) maintained at FW Skrydstrup. 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, two F-16s are kept on QRA readiness, with two more as immediate backup. The four aircraft are kept in a specially constructed building close to the crew building. The aircrafts are fully fuelled, checked out and can be airborne within minutes of the alarm sounding.

The aircraft are armed with two AIM-9L Siderwinders, a centreline fuel tank and a full drum of 20mm ammo for the gun. Two pilots and two ground crews are on 12.5 hours standby in a building close to the QRA shelters. In addition to the two main jets and the two backup jets, 2-3 airframes are on standby, in case one of the four jets has a malfunction that can’t be fixed.

This is done to avoid situations where one of the four primary aircraft breaks down Friday afternoon, leaving one of the QRA jets without a spare airframe for the weekend. These standby jets are also armed and can be ready for flight at short notice.

Apart from keeping the 24-hour QRA, the two F-16 squadrons have to keep the pilots current and well trained. This means that on a normal day two missions are flown, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, usually consisting of eight aircraft per mission. In times when aircrafts are deployed on international missions, or on exercises, the number of airframes per mission is reduced.
The pilot and his office, high above the clouds, taking some gas from a tanker.

Two RDAF F-16 on QRA tango scramble.
International operations
The first time RDAF F-16s or any type of RDAF fighter aircraft, participated in combat operations was during Operation Allied Force, the NATO led missions against Serbian positions in Kosovo. On October 13, 1998, six F-16s from Eskadrille 730 (730 Fighter Squadron) departed Fighter Wing (FW) Skrydstrup, along with a total of 115 support personnel and headed for Grazzanise Air Base in Italy. In April 1999, a further three F-16s were send to Grazzanise where they operated until June 2000.

After this initial overseas operation, the RDAF F-16 has been very active internationally. The next time RDAF F-16s participated in a combat operation was during the US-led “Operation Enduring Freedom” over Afghanistan. From October 1, 2002 until October 1, 2003 six RDAF F-16s operated out of Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan. During the deployment the six F-16s flew a total of 743 missions over Afghanistan, totalling about 4350 flight hours. During these missions several laser-guided bombs were dropped.


Baltic Air Policing
After the Baltic countries joined NATO in April 2004, NATO set up the Baltic Air Policing mission to provide air policing over the three nations as they lacked the assets to do so themselves. RDAF F-16s have been deployed to the Baltic region four times (2004, 2009, 2013 and 2014), flying out of either Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania or Ämari air base in Estonia.

In September 2006, the USAF stopped deploying fighter units to Keflavik Air Base, which left Iceland with no means to patrol their own airspace. Following several intrusions of Icelandic air space by Russian aircraft, NATO air policing over Iceland was started in May 2008. The RDAF have been deployed to Keflavik Air Base on three occasions, in 2009, 2010 and 2015.

While on station in Keflavik in March 2009, RDAF F-16 were also flying the Baltic Air Policing mission from Šiauliai Air Base in Lithuania, which meant that the RDAF were carrying out air policing over five different nations simultaneously.

Flex take off with burners! This Viper driver knows how to do it in style!
“During Operation Unified Protector NATO aircraft flew 26.435 single sorties, of which the Danish F-16s flew approximately 1.300.”
Operation Odyssey Dawn
On March 19, 2011 the Danish government, backed up by UN resolution 1973, decided to send a total of six F-16 and 120 personnel to the Naval Air Station Sigonella on Sicily to help with the US led Operation Odyssey Dawn, the fight again Colonel Gadhafi’s forces. The Danish F-16s undertook their first operational mission on March 20 and during the twelve days Operation Odyssey Dawn lasted, the Danish F-16s flew 41 missions and dropped 102 bombs.

On April 1, the US-led Operation Odyssey Dawn ended and was replaced by the NATO led Operation Unified Protector. During both operations the RDAF F-16s flew 600 missions and dropped 923 bombs. The Danish F-16s flew their last mission on the evening of October 31; this was also the last NATO mission with fighter jets. During Operation Unified Protector NATO aircraft flew 26.435 single sorties, of which the Danish F-16s flew approximately 1.300

More recently, in October 2014, four RDAF F-16s, plus three spares, deployed to Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base in Kuwait to assist the US-led international coalition in the fight against the Islamic terror organisation ISIL in Iraq. The F-16’s, along with around 140 personal, were deployed to Ahmed Al Jaber Air Base until October 2015, when they returned to their home base at Fighter Wing Skrydstrup. During this time, the Danish F-16s flew 547 missions over Iraq and dropped 503 bombs.

Fight against ISIL
On May 4, 2016 the Danish Parliament decided that RDAF F-16s should return to the Middle East to again help in the fight against ISIL, this time flying over both Iraq and Syria as part of the Inherent Resolve campaign. Like the previous deployment, four F-16s were sent with three airframes in reserve. On June 15, 2016 eight RDAF F-16s took off from their home base and headed towards Incirlik Air Base in Turkey.

On the way, they made a scheduled fuel stop at Gioia Del Colle in Italy. From there, seven aircraft continued to Incirlik Air Base, while the eighth one returned to FW Skrydstrup. It is expected that the F-16s will be deployed for six months. From Incirlik the Danish F-16s will fly missions over both Syria and Iraq in the fight against ISIL.

On June 17 two Danish F-16s flew the first combat mission from Incirlik AB over both Syria and Iraq but no bombs were dropped during this first sortie. As of October 5, the RDAF F-16s have flown 166 missions, during which 231 precision weapons have been dropped on various targets

“Having successfully completed a number of sorties over large parts of Greenland, the three F-16s returned to Denmark on August 7, 2015.”
All the maintenance of the Danish F-16s is done in Denmark.
 
A RDAF F-16 breaks away from the tanker in style.

Arctic Falcons
For many years the RDAF have flown patrols over Greenland using a combination of CL-604 Challenger and C-130J-30 Hercules aircraft from 721 squadron. In 2015 the decision was made to test out the F-16 and its sensor suite over Greenland and to gain knowledge about operating fighter aircraft over the arctic.

RDAF F-16s have previously made fuel stops at Kangerlussuaq (Sønder Strømfjord) while deploying to the United States, but this would be the first time missions would actually be flown over Greenland.

On August 5, 2015 three F-16s took off from FW Skrydstrup and headed towards Kangerlussuaq. Along with them were also a CL-604 Challenger aircraft and a C-130J-30 carrying spare parts and ground crews.

To help deal with the long distances when flying over Greenland, the RDAF borrowed two sets of 600-gallon drop tanks from the Portuguese Air Force. The 600-gallon drop tanks were used by the two primary jets, while the third, a backup jet, flew to Greenland with the normal 370-gallon drop tanks.

During their mission to Greenland, the two primary jets landed at Thule AFB, the first ever landing there by an F-16, almost 40 years after the last single seat fighter landed at the base. Having successfully completed a number of sorties over large parts of Greenland, the three F-16s returned to Denmark on August 7, 2015.

Future Fighter
The search for an F-16 replacement technically started in 1997 when Denmark joined the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program as a Level 3 partner. In August 2005 the competition to replace the F-16 started in earnest, when the Danish Department of Defence requested information from Lockheed (Joint Strike Fighter), EADS (Eurofighter), SAAB (JAS-39 Gripen) and Dassault (Rafale) but the latter refused to enter into the selection process as they felt that the Joint Strike Fighter had already been chosen.

In December 2007, EADS pulled the Eurofighter out of the competition as they felt that Lockheed were receiving an unfair advantage, however they re-entered the fray in March 2013. In May of 2008, Boeing made a last minute entry into the selection process with the F/A-18 E/F Super Hornet.

Postponed decision
In March of 2009 the decision for the new fighter was postponed for the first time until late 2009. In October 2009, the decision was postponed for a second time, this time until 2010. Yet again, in March 2010 the selection process was put on hold for up to four years as new analysis showed that the RDAF F-16s could fly for four years longer than first assumed.

The decision process was re-started in March 2013 and on April 10, 2014, the Danish Ministry of Defence sent out “Request for Binding Information” (RBI) to the four manufacturers in the competition. On July 21, 2014 the ministry received the RBI back from Lockheed, Boeing and EADS. SAAB decided to pull out of the competition at this point.

On the May 26, 2015 the then Defence minister announced that the discussions about the new fighter would start in the Parliament on June 18, but the next day the then Prime Minister called for a general election on that date and the decision were postponed yet again.

On May 12, 2016 the Danish government announced that it had chosen the Lockheed F-35 Lightning II as its preferred replacement for the F-16 in RDAF service. On June 9, the leading Danish government party, along with other parties in the Danish Parliament, reached an agreement to purchase a total of 27 F-35’s at an estimated cost of $3 billion.
F-35 Lightning II
The 27 airframes will replace the current F-16 fleet of approximately 44 airframes. Of the 27 F-35s, five will remain in the USA at Luke Air Force Base where they will be used to train future Danish F-35 pilots and ground crews.

Commanding officer of 730 Squadron, ‘STI’ had this reaction to the selection of the F-35; “Generally the pilots are pleased with the decision. There is a feeling that it was the correct choice. It is important that we have chosen the same type as two of our European Participating Air Forces (Norway and The Nederland’s) partners have chosen.” He added, “It is expected that all the teething problems will be solved before the RDAF receives their first aircraft.”

The decision to purchase 27 F-35s has subsequently been met with criticism and scepticism from aviation experts, both nationally and internationally. In their reasoning for replacing 44 F-16s with just 27 F-35s, the Danish government is, amongst other things, expecting to be able to fly a minimum of 250 hours per airframe per year, compared with the 165 flight hours that the F-16s fly now.

A top view of the characteristic Fighting Falcon.

Standardization
In years when the F-35s are deployed on international missions, the government expects to be able to fly 290 hours per airframe. The 250 hours in a “normal” year, is in stark contrast to the 167.7 flight hours per year that the Norwegian government is expecting for their F-35 fleet and no other F-35 user in the world is expecting to be able to fly 250 hours per year.

Experts have called the numbers used by the Danish government to justify purchasing 27 F-35 unrealistic and naive.

When the decision to purchase just 27 airframes was announced, the Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said: “The government has concluded that it is necessary to have 27 new F-35s to replace the F-16s.
This is neither a build-up nor disarmament. It is a completely neutral extension of the Danish fighter capacity.”


Afterwards, several experts pointed out that, whilst the capability of the Danish fighter force remains that same, the capacity will be severely impaired. Having only 22 airframes available in Denmark, will make it very unlikely that the RDAF will be able to participate in international operations while at the same time participating in either the Baltic Air Policing or the air policing over Iceland, something which the F-16 fleet has done before.

Ready to go with a few minuts warning.
This RDAF F-16 awaits it’s pilot, before the next mission.
“It is also noteworthy that the F-35 unit cost cited in the report differs significantly from Pentagon’s own estimate of $99 million..”
Challenge by Boeing
Following the recommendation by the Danish government, Boeing officially challenged the selection, claiming that the estimates of cost per airframe were made using flawed data. In the official government report, it was concluded that 28 F-35s would be purchased at a total cost of $2.33 billion or $83 million per aircraft.

The report also concluded that a total of 38 F/A-18 Super Hornets would be needed to accomplish the same mission over a thirty year period and the total price for these jets were calculated at $4.65 billion or $122 million apiece.

Boeing challenged the price information given in the report, saying that when calculating the cost of the Super Hornet, the cost of sustainment and training for the first five years was included in the upfront procurement cost, but that this was not done for the F-35. It is also noteworthy that the F-35 unit cost cited in the report differs significantly from Pentagon’s own estimate of $99 million. The complaints were however refuted by the Danish government.

In mid-September, Boeing took the first step towards a legal challenge against the Danish Ministry of Defence (MoD) recommendation of the F-35, by submitting a “request for insight”, which would require the MoD to hand over all the information used to evaluate the three fighters in the competition.

It is especially the economical criteria of the evaluation, and the high cost of the Super Hornet used, that Boeing is going to focus on. They will also be looking into the other three criteria’s, strategic, industrial and military aspects.

Poor evaluation
Boeing says that they are concerned that the evaluation was not as fair and transparent as leading Danish politicians have claimed, and they want it “reviewed to the fullest extent allowed under Danish law” according to vice president and general manager of Boeing’s global strike division Debbie Rub.

Boeing is also concerned that the high cost used and the poor evaluation of the Super Hornet given by the Danish MoD, will have a negative effect on other potential Super Hornet customers, namely Canada and Finland.

It is unlikely that the legal actions taken by Boeing will make the Danish government cancel the F-35 order, but if Boeing can prove that the prices used by the Danish MoD were exaggerated, it will make them stand better in future fighter competitions non the less.

It is not only the high number of flying hours and comparatively low unit costs used in the selection process which have raised concerns. The Danish government have also calculated using radical changes in the pilots working conditions. These changes included rising the weekly working hours from 37 hours, which is the standard Danish working week, to 48 hours.

They will also open up for the possibility of a 2-to-1 deployment vs. home time, meaning that pilots can be deployed for twice as long as they get to stay home before being deployed again.

Low level over the Danish oceans is also a place for the danish Falcons.
 
Ready for a training sortie in the dark. The RDAF practice night sorties
during the winter months, where the daylight period is short.

First F-35s by 2021
The service time for pilots might be increased from 8.5 years to 17 years to cut down on the need to train new pilots. It remains to be seen how the pilots work union will react if these changes are implemented.

The current plan put forward by the Danish government is for the first four F-35s to be handed over to the RDAF in 2021, followed by another six in 2022 and the remainder between 2023 and 2026. According to the Danish Defence Ministry, the Danish government reserves the right to buy fewer than 27 airframes if the initial deliveries are delayed or fail to meet the price criteria set once a contract has been negotiated.

The possibility of buying additional airframes in the future is also still on the table. The F-16 fleet is to be phased out from 2020 to 2024. This is expected to leave a gap of two years, from 2022 to 2024 where the RDAF will be unable to participate in international fighter operations as the full operational capability for the F-35 is expected in 2027. It remains to be seen if the planned time schedule is achievable.

The author would like to thank 730 squadron for their help with making this article possible – Vis Superne.

721 Squadron – Hercules Flight

Danish heavy haulers


When the Danish Armed Forces need to move large amounts of goods or personnel,
the task is given to 721 Squadron’s Hercules Flight. FLYMAG takes a look at the Hercules Flight of 721 Squadron.
BY: SØREN AUGUSTESEN
Danish heavy haulers
When the Danish Armed Forces need to move large amounts of goods or personnel, the task is given to 721 Squadron’s Hercules Flight. The Flight is based at Aalborg Air Base, also known as Air Transport Wing (ATW) Aalborg, located in northern Jutland.

C-130J-30
721 Squadrons Hercules Flight is equipped with four Lockheed C-130J-30 Hercules aircraft. The first of these were delivered in 2004 but the unit’s first encounter with the C-130 was back in 1975, when three C-130H’s were delivered to Værløse Air Base, which back then was the unit’s home base. The H models replaced the aging Douglas C-54D/G Skymaster and the C-47 Skytrain as the primary transport aircraft in the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF).

As the Danish Armed Forces started to become more involved in international operations around the world, the need for tactical air transport increased.

Despite numerous upgrades, the H models were starting to show their age and on 1st of December 2000, the Danish government signed a contract with Lockheed Martin (now Lockheed) for three C-130J-30 Hercules, with the option for one more. The -30 version of the C-130J is a stretched version whereby 15 feet (approximately 4.5 meter) has been added to the fuselage to expand the cargo hold.

The first C-130J-30 (B-536) for RDAF was delivered on 1st March 2004 which coincided with the units move from Værløse Air Base to its current home at Aalborg Air Base. The next two aircraft were delivered on 15 March (B-537) and 5 April (B-538).
“The first C-130J-30 (B-536) for RDAF was delivered on 1st of March 2004.”
A RDAF C-130J-30 lands on the beach of the Danish island of Rømø.

The easy way to tell the differnce between a J and a non-J model of the C-130,
is the 6 blades propeller on the J and the 4 blade of the non-J.
Block standards
In 2006 it was decided to take out the option for the fourth aircraft and B-583 was delivered to Aalborg Air Base on 15 July 2007. The three old C-130H airframes were sold to Lockheed as part of the deal. These were then later sold to Egypt.

The first three C-130J-30 were delivered in Block 5.4 standard and the forth in Block 6.1 standard. After the delivery of the fourth airframe, the first three were sent to Marshall Aerospace in Cambridge and upgraded to Block 6.1 standard.

Block 6.1 upgraded the C-130J-30 in a number of ways compared to the 5.4. The upgrades included a higher maximum takeoff weight (up from 70,308 kg to 74,390 kg), enhanced performance during operations in hot or cold climate and an upgrade to the hydraulic pump used to open the cargo ramp, so that it is now possible to open the ramp at altitudes up to 35,000 feet (10.5 km) as opposed to 15,000 feet (4.5 km).

The upgrade
Denmark is a member of the C-130J Joint User Group which means that the four Hercules will receive continues upgrades. The next planned will most likely be a double-upgrade as a delayed Block 7 package will be combined with the Block 8 upgrade.

This will among other things, give the Hercules Link 16 secure data communication, a new Flight Management System (FMS) based on the FMS from a Boeing 737 and a GPS, which is certified to be used during GPS approaches to civilian airports. It has not yet been decided when these upgrades will start though.

Before work on any upgrades can begin, all four airframes have to go through a D-check, which is performed after ten years in service. B-536 was the first aircraft to be flown to Marshall Aerospace for this work and it returned to Aalborg Air Base in August 2015. Once B-536 had returned, B-538 was sent to have its D-check performed. During a D-check, the aircraft is almost completely taken apart and all systems are checked and put back together again. This means that while the D-checks and block upgrades are happening, the unit will only have three aircraft available.

The missions
As the Danish Armed Forces have become more involved in international missions, the squadron have been very busy flying personnel and equipment all over the globe in support. This has resulted in many missions to and from Afghanistan and more recently to Kuwait where seven Danish F-16’s were deployed in the fight against IS.

The C-130J-30 is also often used to transport VIP’s into high-threat areas. The aircraft is equipped with advanced systems for electronic warfare and self-protection. These systems are developed by the Danish company Terma A/S and are centred on the AN/ALQ-213 Electronic Warfare Management System (EWMS) which is also used in the Danish F-16’s.

The EWMS controls the AN/ALR-69 Radar Warning Receiver, the AN/AAR-54 Missile Approach Warning System, the ALQ-162 Electronic Countermeasures Jammer and an advanced chaff and flare dispenser system developed by Terma A/S. All of this equipment plus armour plating on the aircraft makes it much more capable of flying in high-threat areas than the CL-604 Challengers that usually handle VIP transport for the Royal Danish Air Force.
“The unit also flies a lot to Greenland.”
The modern glass cockpit of the C-130J, with a lot of computers and HUD to help to pilots.

Flying over Greenland
In addition to all the missions flown to support Danish troops, the unit also flies a lot to Greenland in order to deliver supplies to the Danish garrison stationed there. When the C-130J-30 flies missions to Greenland, they are mostly flown as single missions and not as a part of what is called “Luftgruppe Vest” (Air group West), such as when the Challenger flies over Greenland.

The Hercules does sometimes fly as a stand-in for the Challenger in Luftgruppe Vest when the former are busy on international missions such as Operation Ocean Shield. Thanks to the ability to land and take off on very short runways, down to 800 meters and the ability to use grass and gravel runways, the C-130J-30 can operate from most runways in Greenland and around the world.

A close look at the new SABIR arm, and the ‘bubble glass’-door.
New engines
Because of the upgraded engines with better fuel economy compared to the H model, the C-130J-30 is capable of flying nonstop from its base at Aalborg to Greenland if the weather conditions and the weight of the load are within the limits.

Usually a flight to Greenland is planned with a fuel stop in Iceland basically to ensure that there is enough fuel to reach an alternative runway if the runway at the destination suddenly closes due to bad weather. On the day of the flight, it is then decided if the fuel stop at Iceland is necessary or if it is possible to fly directly to the destination.

The crew
The minimum crew of the C-130J-30 is two pilots and a loadmaster but on most missions the unit flies with two pilots and two loadmasters. On longer missions a crew chief is often brought along as well. The advantage of taking a crew chief on a mission is that he is not limited in the number of hours he can work with the aircraft.

This means that the crew chief can stay behind and work on any problems that may have arisen during the flight while the pilots and loadmaster can get the required rest and be ready to continue with the mission the next day.

The new advanced systems in the cockpit of the C-130J-30 have meant that the crew have been reduced from five in the H model (two pilots, a navigator, an engineer and a radio operator) to just two pilots. One of the big differences from the H model is that the J model has dual Head Up Displays (HUD), one for each pilot.

On the HUD the pilots can get all the information they need to fly the aircraft and accomplish the mission. The HUD comes in especially useful when flying low-level or in high-threat areas where the crew constantly needs to visually check their surroundings.

721 Squadron has nine crews in total. Because of the large number of different missions the unit performs, each crewmember is specially trained in one area, i.e. flying with Special Forces or visually dropping Search and Rescue (SAR) equipment over the ocean. All crews are trained in all missions, but gain the highest possible level of expertise by focusing on specific areas.

The Hercules’ tasks
The primary mission for the C-130J-30 is to move personnel or cargo from point A to point B. It is however not always possible to land at the location the cargo or personnel needs to be delivered to. For this reason the floor in the cargo compartment is equipped with rollers, which means the cargo can be dropped out the rear of the aircraft with parachute.

The cargo is dropped inside containers which can weigh up to one ton each. Because of the stretched cargo compartment, a total of 24 one-ton containers can be carried at any one time.

When dropping cargo by parachute, all the necessary information such as coordinates for the drop zone, the direction, height and speed the aircraft will be traveling and so on, is entered into the flight computer, which then calculates exactly when the cargo needs to be released. This means that the pilot only has to concentrate on flying the aircraft within the correct parameters.

The squadron does still practice visual manual drops of equipment though in case of equipment failure. They have recently started practicing manual drops of SAR equipment to people in distress in open waters. During such drops it is up to the pilot to alert the loadmasters when the equipment should be dropped in order for it to reach the people in distress. This capability will mainly be used when flying over the Arctic Circle.

When personnel leave the Hercules using parachute, it is usually done by a static line jump, where the soldier’s line up in two rows and jump out the two side doors of the aircraft in much the same fashion as during World War 2. However, when Special Forces jump from the C-130J-30, they usually exit from the rear ramp of the Hercules. The reasons for this are that not only can they jump in a tighter group, they usually also carry more equipment than a normal paratrooper, making it more practical to leave via the ramp.

The unit regularly trains not only with the Danish Special Forces, “Jægerkorpset” and “Frømandkorpset”, but also with Special Forces from other NATO countries, as well as participating in international exercises which include Special Forces elements.
“The cargo is dropped inside containers which can weigh up to one ton each. Because of the stretched cargo compartment, a total of 24 one-ton containers can be carried at any one time.”
A RDAF C-130J on a low-level mission over the ocean around Denmark.

The new SABIR arm, with the attached FLIR camera.
New equipment – new options
As part from the Block update described earlier, the units C-130J-30 sometimes receive new equipment to test to see if it can bring new and useful capabilities to the aircraft.

In the spring of 2015, B-536 was equipped with a Special Airborne Mission Installation and Response (SABIR) arm on the right side of the airframe, just under the right side door. The SABIR arm is produced by the American company Airdyne Aerospace and consists of a standard NATO pylon and a control station placed inside the cargo hold of the Hercules. From the control station, the operator can control whatever equipment is attached to the SABIR arm.

So far the RDAF have attached a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera to the SABIR arm with the intent to use it during SAR missions to help locate people in the water. The FLIR camera will not only be used in the SAR role, but it is also planned to use it in the Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) role in the future.

The possibilities of the SABIR arm
The squadron is currently testing the system to see what new capabilities it brings and how it can be incorporated into the unit’s current missions and then what new missions the unit will be able to perform using the SABIR arm.

Using the FLIR camera the Hercules could be used to survey an area where Special Forces have been inserted and if a laser designator is attached to the SABIR arm, they could be used to designate targets for other ground and air units.

If more pylons were to be attached to the Hercules, they could even designate and drop laser guided weapons or cargo of their own. However, currently there are no plans to attach anything else other than the FLIR camera to the SABIR arm.

The C-130J is the heavy hauler of the Royal Danish Air Force.
The loadmaster is also the operator of the SABIR-arm, in this case with the attached FLIR.

The future
The SABIR arm and FLIR camera will be used in the Arctic areas where the FLIR, along with the new “bubble doors” will make the C-130J aircraft into an effective SAR aircraft, that can scan and locate people in distress through the FLIR, and then throw down various types of rescue equipment via visual drops. In addition, the SABIR arm can also be used in connection with the ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) role.

New equipment brings new capabilities, which means that the unit’s nine crews will have even more missions to train for and fly, and with the current D-checks and future Block upgrades which mean the unit only have three airframes available in the next couple of years, the squadron is facing a busy future.

FLYMAG would like to thank the Hercules Flight of 721 Squadron, for their big help in making this article possible.