European Air Refuelling Training 2016
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Eindhoven Air Base in the Netherlands hosted the third edition of the
European Air Refuelling Training
(EART) exercise 2016 from April 11 – 22. The same countries as last year
participated: French AF GRV 91
“Bretagne” Boeing C-135FR, German AF BMVg Airbus A310MRTT, Italian AF 14
Stormo Boeing KC-767A
and
Royal Netherlands AF McDonnell Douglas KDC-10. Due to operational
commitments the A310MRTT
operated from its home base Cologne and the Italians only participating
in the first week. Simultaneously
the
RNLAF ran the annual fighter exercise Frisian Flag from Leeuwarden AB
with the aircraft being
refuelled by the EART participants.
Two
years ago the first edition of EART was held by the European Defence
Agency, European Air
Transport Command (EATC) and RNLAF. It then aimed at getting the
participating nations (Germany, Italy
and
Netherlands) together on the same air base primarily focusing on
exchanging experiences. The next
year
the EATC inserted elements of the its European Air Transport Training
Exercise into EART while the
training & exercise branch of the functional division added an initial
academics phase for the
participating crews and EART saw the French Air Force join. Between the
exercises the EATC had stood
up a
dedicated Air-to-Air refuelling cell responsible for tasking and
execution missions for its members
AAR
assets and it send planners to Leeuwarden to coordinate the AAR request
from the Frisian Flag (FF)
mission commanders. The 2016 saw SHARCs (Specialized Heavy Air
Refuelling Course) deployed to
Leeuwarden relaying AAR support requests and providing feedback from
EART crews to FF mission
commanders. The academics introduced in 2015 were more structured and
advanced training objectives
were
introduced.
During the exercise period missions were flown twice a day with the
exception of the last day which only
saw
the morning sortie conducted. The morning missions with an estimated
departure time (ETD) of
09:00 were planned and briefed during the afternoon of the previous day
from around 15:00 – 19:00.
The
afternoon sorties were planned in the morning with an ETD of 13:00. Due
to the limited turnaround
time
for the maintenance crews, max two hours, the tankers headed back to
Eindhoven after completing
their refuelling task in the morning. The afternoon mission provided
more time for dedicated training
which was conducted after completing the AAR. Two elements were
introduced: operating in tanker
formations and operating as the On Scene Commander (OSC). With the
tankers able to spend the longest time on station due to their fuel load
one of them was assigned OSC and coordinated the SAR mission
when
the scenario included recovery of a pilot who was forced to eject.
The
exercise will continue to develop and combine a harmonized AAR concept,
academics and offer specific AAR training within Europe. Until April
2016 three exercises all in conjunction with Frisian Flag
have
been conducted. It’s planned to run EARTs simultaneously with other
European held exercise of
which the annual NATO Tiger Meet was referred to. It provides
participating fighter crews with the much
needed AAR capability while it enhances interoperability within the AAR
community. On the roll is the
introduction of AAR kits to the Airbus D&S A400M (planned 2017) and the
arrival of the new A330MRTT.
France is expecting its first delivery of 12 ordered A330MRTT aircraft
in 2018. Its currently unknown of
these will be brought under control of the EATC or remain under control
of the strategic fleet alike the
current C-135FR fleet. It’s expected that a contract for three aircraft
will be signed by Netherlands,
Luxembourg, Norway and Poland at the Farnborough International Air show
July 11-15. These will be
delivered from 2020 and reach full operational capability (FOC) during
the summer of 2021.
The
author would like to thank: Col. Jurgen van der Biezen (RNLAF / EATC),
Maj. Michel (RNLAF 334
squadron) and colleagues from EATC , RNLAF and participating nations. |