10 // September 2019 #378 http://www.airforcesmonthly.comSecond
Phénix for
French Air
Force
THE ARMÉE de l’Air
(French Air Force) has
taken delivery of its second
A330 PhénixMulti-Role
Tanker Transport (MRTT),
which arrived at Base
Aérienne 125 Istres-Le
Tubé on July 2, three
months ahead of schedule.
The air arm’s latest MRTT,
serial 042 (c/n 1808,
EC-338), was accepted by
the Direction générale de
l’armement (DGA, General
Directorate of Armament).
It is the first to be equipped
with a medical evacuation
capability, as the air arm
moves towards declaring
full operational capability
planned for the end of
October. The medevac
kit allows transport of a
dozen seriously injured
patients, or 40 slightly
injured patients.
The operating unit is
the 31e Escadre Aérienne
de Ravitaillement et de
Transport Stratégiques
(31st Air Refuelling and
Strategic Transport
Wing), established at
Istres in August 2014.BULGARIA’S PLAN to
acquire eight F-16V Block
70 fighters is back on track
after the parliament in Sofia
overturned a presidential
veto of the US$1.26bn deal.
On July 23, President
Rumen Radev blocked the
purchase, citing a lack of
consensus over the deal
which he said had been
rushed through parliament.A day later, however, a
parliamentary defence
committee vetoed Radev’s
move and the procurement
law was submitted again
to the national assembly,
which passed it on July- The president then
signed the bill into law.
There has been debate
in Bulgaria around a
25% cut in cost of the
programme, compared
with the US$1.67bn
package approved by the
US State Department.
Critics have suggested
that the revised deal is
inadequate in terms of the
support package, including
equipment and training.
The new-build Fighting
Falcons – six single-seaters
and a pair of two-seaters- are scheduled to replace
the current Bulgarski
Voennovazdushni Sili (BVVS,
Bulgarian Air Force) MiG-
fleet, and deliveries are due
to be completed in 2023.
Deputy Defence Minister
Atanas Zapryanov has said
that the country also plans
to buy an additional batch of
eight F-16s under a follow-on
deal, paid for in instalments.
Bulgarian
parliament
clears
F-16V buy
The BVVS ‘Fulcrum’ fl eet is made up of 12 single-seat
MiG-29As and three MiG-29UB trainers, all based at Graf
Ignatievo. ‘White 15’ and ‘White 33’ are seen performing
at the base on June 29, in an event marking the type’s
30th anniversary in Bulgarian service. Sam WiseLanceRs at Nörvenich
THE MiG-21 returned to
Germany after an absence
of more than ten years
when a pair of Forțele
Aeriene Române (FAR,
Romanian Air Force) MiG-
21MF-75 LanceR C fighters
stopped at the Luftwaffe
base at Nörvenich –
home of the Eurofighter-
equipped Taktisches
Luftwaffengeschwader31 ‘Boelcke’ – on July
18 and 22. The jets from
Escadrila 861 based
at Mihail Kogălniceanu
were participating in
the Royal International
Air Tattoo at RAF
Fairford, Gloucestershire.
Accompanied by a C-27J
from Baza 90 Transport
Aerian at Bucharest-Otopeni,
the LanceRs made stopsat Pardubice in the Czech
Republic and Nörvenich
on their way to Fairford
and back to Romania.
The type’s previous visit to
Germany was in June and
July 2008, when a single
aircraft made a stopover
at Erfurt Airport on its way
to and from participation
in the Bastille Day parade
over Paris. Holger MüllerMiG-21MF-75 LanceR C serials 6807 and 6824 during their stop at Nörvenich on July 22 on
their way back to Romania. Holger MüllerPolish Air Force 4th Air
Training Wing changes
SIŁY POWIETRZNE (Polish
Air Force) Mi-2PSz serial
3607 of the 4. Skrzydło
Lotnictwa Szkolnego (SLSz,
air training wing) taxies
after landing at Dęblin on
May 8, weeks before the
unit’s Mi-2s and SW-4s
relocated to Radom.
Radom was closed to
fixed-wing traffic from June
15 for a two-year period of
expansion that will allow the
civilian airport to handle up
to three million passengers
annually. As a result, it was
decided to move Radom’s
M28TDs and PZL-130 TC-IIs- operated by the 42. BLSz –
to nearby Dęblin. The M28s
moved to Dęblin in early June
while the PZL-130s arrived
there after the Orlik aerobatic
team had performed at the
Turku Airshow in Finland in
mid-June. In turn, Dęblin’s
rotorcraft relocated to
Radom in the second week
of June for the duration of
the runway closure. It’s not
been decided if these moves
will become permanent and
there remains a possibility
that helicopter training will
be transferred to Nowe
Miasto in the near future and
Radom closed as an active
military base. Marco MuntzMarco MuntzNEWS Continental Europe
10-13 EuropeNews AFM Sep2019.indd 10 8/5/2019 3:11:50 PM