Page 10 - Air Forces Monthly - September 2017

NEWS Continental Europe

‘Tête de sioux’ Rafale End for

ARMÉE DE l’Air (French over Paris. Serving as Rafale C 351 is assigned an American Sioux Indian Austrian
Air Force) Rafale C 351 a spare it didn’t take to Escadron de Chasse chief first appeared Typhoons?
‘4-FR’, the first to wear part in the flypast. (EC) 2/4 ‘La Fayette’ at as the insignia of the
the historic ‘tête de sioux’ Beginning at 0900hrs BA 125 Istres-Le Tubé, US-manned Lafayette THE AUSTRIAN
insignia, was at Evreux on a single quick reaction which will complete the Escadrille in 1916. Ministry of Defence
July 14 for the departure alert Rafale was airborne replacement of its Mirage has outlined plans to
of fighters for the annual from Evreux throughout 2000Ns with the new jets retire its Tranche 1
Bastille Day parade the day of the parade. next year. The head of Eurofighters from 2020.
A report by the
ministry’s Active
Airspace Surveillance
commission, revealed
on July 7, says retaining
the 18 EF2000s over
the next 30 years
would cost up to €2bn
more than replacing
them with a similar
number of replacement
supersonic fighters.
Under the proposals
the Eurofighter and
Saab 105OE would
both be replaced by
15 single-seat and
three two-seat jets of a
single type. However,
Joris van Boven Austrian elections in
October could see
E.I.S. takes Turkish ‘specials’ on tour the plans revised.
A full report on the
on ex- future of the fighter
arms of Austria and
Croatian Switzerland will appear
in the October issue.
PC-9s
ACCORDING TO First Reaper
unofficial sources, fl ight in
E.I.S. Aircraft GmbH,
based at Kiel-Holtenau
Airport in Germany, France
recently acquired AN MQ-9A unmanned
three PC-9 trainers
from the Hrvatsko aerial vehicle (UAV) of the
Armée de l’Air completed
Ratno Zrakoplovstvo
i Protuzračna Obrana Fabrizio Berni its first flight in French
airspace on July 4. Reaper
(HRZ i PZO, Croatian
Air Force) for a total THESE TWO specially at Konya was at Ghedi 222 Filo at Kayseri arrived 612 of Escadron de Drones
air base, Italy, on July
painted Türk Hava
at RAF Lakenheath,
(ED) 1/33 ‘Belfort’ took
of €810,000.
The aircraft, serial Kuvvetleri (THK, Turkish 26, wearing a revised Suffolk, on August 2 off from BA 709 Cognac-
numbered 051, 052 and Air Force) aircraft livery on the tail to mark wearing special colours Châteaubernard for a
053 (c/n 107, 183 and were recent visitors to 25 years of the Turkish associated with its work 5hr 10min flight over
as support aircraft
European air bases.
Stars display team.
French territory north of
185 respectively), were
Meanwhile, C-130E
originally operated by NF-5B-2000 71-4026 63-13187 (c/n 4012) of for the Solo Turk F-16 the base, demonstrating
the air force’s ability to
(c/n 4026) of 133 Filo
demonstration aircraft.
Eskadrila Aviona (EA,
Aircraft Squadron) conduct training locally
and without US support.
of 93. zrakoplovna
baza (93. zb, 93rd The test flight also proved
calibration of emergency
Air Base) at Zemunik
air base in Zadar. parameters and verified
satellite links using two
They were declared
surplus together with ground control stations.
Currently, six aircraft
three other PC-9Ms
(serials 058, 060, 065) are operational with ED
1/33, five of which are
and offered for sale
in January 2015. forward deployed at the
expeditionary air base
The German company
already uses a number in Niamey, Niger, where
they have completed
of PC-9s for training
services for the German over 15,000 flying hours
since January 2014.
military and NATO
By 2019, the squadron
partners, including will have 12 aircraft,
target towing and
forward air controller operated by 30 crews.
A Cognac-based MQ-9
(FAC) instruction.
Vladimir Trendafilovski Bob Archer took part in the July 14
military parade in Paris.
10 // SEPTEMBER 2017 #354 www.airforcesmonthly.com