EART 2018: Tankers train together
eld every year since 2014,
European Air-to-Air Refuelling
Training (EART) once again ran
parallel to the larger-scale Frisian
Flag exercise, from April 9 to 20.
Set up by the European Defence
Agency (EDA), it’s organised by
the Eindhoven-based seven-nation
European Air Transport Command
(EATC) and hosted by 334 Squadron,
the RNLAF unit at Eindhoven, which
operates two KDC-10 tanker/transports.
With five tankers scheduled to take
part, this year’s EART was supposed
to be the largest so far. Unfortunately,
things turned out differently. In
previous years, the Italian
Air Force joined in with a
KC-767A from the 14°
Stormo’s 8° Gruppo
at Pratica di Mare,
but a few weeks
before the start of the
exercise the Italians
had to cancel due to
operational commitments.
On the first day, four
tankers were parked on
the aprons of Eindhoven Air Base.
Besides a KDC-10, they included
a Luftwaffe A310-304 Multi-Role
Tanker Transport (MRTT), an Armée
de l’Air Boeing C-135FR and a US
Air Force KC-135R from the 351st
Air Refueling Squadron/100th Air
Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall.
On Monday April 9, the KC-135R
stayed behind at Eindhoven with
a technical issue and returned to
Mildenhall on Wednesday, without
having flown an EART mission. The
French tanker flew one mission on
Monday before leaving later that day.
Both nations
withdrew their
assets from the
exercise as the result
of rising international
tensions over the chemical
weapons attack in Douma, Syria,
on April 7, and the ensuing air strikes
on Syrian targets by US, French and
British forces on April 13 (see Headlines,
June, p6-7). The withdrawn tankers
were needed to support the combat
aircraft involved in those operations.
From day two, EART continued
with only the Dutch and German
tankers flying two missions a day. In
the second week, the KDC-10 also
suffered technical problems which,
with the other Dutch aircraft down for
maintenance, further limited the tanker
capacity available for Frisian Flag.Training objectives
The tankers operated at flight level 150-
300 (15,000-30,000ft/4,572-9,144m)
during EART, in dedicated refuelling
tracks called ‘SHELL’, located west of
the Dutch isles, and ‘ESSO’, north of the
exercise area off the Danish west coast.
Maj Martin, a Dutch KDC-10 pilot with
334 Squadron and project officer for
EART 2018, stressed that it and Frisian
Flag are two separate exercises, saying:
“Apart from supporting Frisian Flag,
we have our own training objectives.
They include training rendezvous
procedures with the receivers and
retrograde procedures – in which
we practise moving away in time if
enemy fighters come too close.
“Tankers are so-called high-
value airborne assets [HVAA], and
we can learn a lot when workingtogether with the fighters that
protect us. The complex Frisian
Flag scenarios also give us ample
training opportunities to get used to
working with the Link 16 network.
“Practising cell formation is
another training objective. This
has been in the books for many
years but was hardly trained in
the past. Letting three tankers
operate with a vertical separation of
only 500ft can be a solution when
available airspace is limited.
“Unfortunately we were not able to
practise this because the French and
US tankers were withdrawn, but we will
certainly include it on the [next exercise]
agenda. Furthermore, we practised an
accompanied let-down, in which we
bring back a damaged fighter by letting
it hang on our wing until on short final.”previous years, the Italian
Air Force joined in with a
operational commitments.
withdrew their
assets from the
exercise as the result
of rising international
tensions over the chemicalAbove: French Rafale Cs and Spanish Hornets were among the Frisian Flag-participating jets
refuelled by the Luftwaffe A310 MRTT. Dutch MoD/Adjudant Arnoud SchoorH
Volkel-based F-16AMs from 312 and 313 Squadrons participating in Frisian Flag 2018 refuel from the KDC-10 in the ESSO track west of Denmark, on April 11.
Note that as part of the ‘quick fl ow’ procedure, the F-16 on the left is positioned close to the jet on the boom rather than on the left wing of the tanker, so that
it can hook up as soon as the boom is free. Dutch MoD/Adjudant Arnoud Schoor
http://www.airforcesmonthly.com #364 JULY 2018 // 75