NO(^22) THE MAGAZINE 02 23
SCANDINAVIAN
AVIATION MAGAZINE
Flying over the Baltics
While stationed at Siauliai Air Base, the four F-16s
are parked in the new shelters, and they are kept
on a 24/7 alert status, with two aircraft acting as
primary aircraft, and two as spares. In buildings
close by, the maintenance crew have they
facilities and they are able to reach the shelters
within minutes of the alarm sounding. Two pilots
are on constant alert inside the headquarters
building, always wearing their flight suit, and in
winter times their rubber suit as well, ready to run
to the van, which will take them to the aircraft,
when the alarm sounds.
The alert aircrafts fly two types of missions,
Alpha scrambles and Tango Scrambles. Alpha
scrambles are the “real deal”, flown when
unidentified aircraft approaches or enters the air
space of one of the three Baltic countries. These
are typically Russian transport aircrafts, who have
either failed to submit a flight plan, or are diverting
from their submitted flight plan. A Tango scramble
is a training sortie flown once a day, to make sure
that every link in the alert chain is functioning as it
should.
When flying the QRA mission over Danish
territory, the F-16’s are armed with a drum
full of 20mm cannon shells and two AIM-9M
Siderwinder air-to-air missiles on the wingtips
and two 370-gallon fuel tanks under the wings.
However, when flying over the Baltics the Danish
F-16’s are armed with two AIM-120C AMRAAM
air-to-air on the wingtip launch rails, two AIM-9M
Sidewinders mounted on the outer underwing
pylons, two 370-gallon under wing fuel tanks and
the Lightning Targeting pod mounted on the right
side of the air intake.
Speaking about the difference between flying
the QRA mission over Denmark, and flying the
BAP mission over the Baltics, Lieutenant Colonel
STI commented: “Flying over the Baltics isn’t
that much different than flying over Denmark. It
is a bit closer to Russia, but we often fly over the
Baltic sea when flying east of the Danish island of
Bornholm, so we are used to flying near Russian
air space.”
The author would like to send a big thank you
to the men and women of the Royal Danish Air
Force, for their help with this article.