Air International — September 2017

KONINKLIJKE LUCHTMACHT F-16 MILITARY

K

oninklijke Luchtmacht

(KLU) F-16s and

personnel deployed

to the United States

for seven weeks of

extensive training in

the  rst quarter of

2017. Two so-called
      visiting units spent
      two weeks each at
      Davis-Monthan during the initial four weeks
      for a training programme called CONUS
      2017, while a third detachment participated
      in exercise Red Flag 17-2 at Nellis Air
      Force Base in Nevada. Each visiting unit
      at Davis-Monthan comprised a mixed
      party of some 130 people from Volkel and
      Leeuwarden Air Bases: pilots, technicians
      and support personnel. The detachment
      at Nellis totalled 140 KLU personnel, plus
      another 60 from the Arizona Air National
      Guard (ANG) that normally supports
      the KLU F-16 training operations of the
      Netherlands Detachment Tucson Arizona
      at Tucson Air National Guard Base located
      at Tucson International Airport. During
      the whole period in the United States, a
      logistic detachment of 20-25 Dutch military

supported the roughly 400 KLU personnel

rotating in and out during the deployment.

Mixed  eet

Supported by a KDC-10 tanker/transport

from Eindhoven-based 334 Squadron, six

F-16AMs made the journey across the

Atlantic via the southerly route with night

stops at Lajes Field, Azores, and Shaw

Air Force Base, South Carolina, arriving

at Davis-Monthan on January 26. They

included three aircraft from Volkel – home

to 312 and 313 Squadrons – and three

from Leeuwarden-based 322 Tactical

Training, Evaluation and Standardisation

(TACTES) Squadron. During the deployment,

the six Netherlands-based F-16s were

complemented by four KLU F-16AMs

of the USAF’s 148th Fighter Squadron,

the squadron within the Arizona ANG’s

162nd Fighter Wing at Tucson responsible

for training Dutch F-16 pilots. The 148th

dedicates about 40% of its annual 2,000

 ying hours to training operational KLU

squadron pilots. Some of these hours were

used during CONUS 2017 and Red Flag.

The resulting mixed  eet allowed the number

of Dutch jets ferried to the United States

to be limited to six, the maximum a single

KDC-10 can drag across the pond.

This year’s deployment marked the  rst

visit of Netherlands-based F-16s to the

United States – and their participation in Red

Flag – in four years. In past decades, Dutch

Falcons participated in North American Flag

exercises many times, most recently in Red

Flag at Nellis (2009 and 2013) and Red Flag

Alaska at Eielson Air Force Base in 2011. Lt

Col Bok, commanding of cer of 322 TACTES

Squadron and detachment commander

(DetCo) of the second visiting unit in CONUS

2017, said: “Whenever we go to Red Flag, we

try to combine the exercise with additional

training in the US. We do not want to bring

our aircraft over the Atlantic just for two

weeks  ying in Red Flag. The additional

training allows us to get much more training

value out of our deployment. Exercises like

Red Flag as well as Frisian Flag at home

[see ‘North Sea Warriors’, AIR International,

July 2017, p94–97] require preparation: after

all, we do not  y in such large packages

on a daily basis during our regular training

programme. That is why we prefer to plan the

additional training before the actual exercise,

like we do now.”