Combat aircraft

A

DOZEN F16s FROM the

Ohio Air National Guard

landed at Ämari Air Base,

Estonia, on January 14 as

the US military showed

its latest commitment

to Europe with the Toledo-based

wing continuing its diverse mission.

‘Deploying our F-16s to Estonia shows

our ability to  y missions out of di erent

locations around the world,’ commented

Lt Col Gregory Barasch, who led the

deployment. ‘It also increases our

capabilities and readiness by  ying

air-to-air and air-to-ground missions

with our local and regional partners.

This type of deployment, funded by the

European Deterrence Initiative, increases

the capability and readiness of US forces,

allowing for a faster response in the

event of any aggression by a regional

adversary against NATO sovereign

territory.’

Barasch added, ‘We love to be here. It’s

a great place to be because it’s testing a

lot of our capabilities, such as working on

an open ramp in the winter with a lot of

snow. We are used to this weather, but we

At the beginning of January, a dozen 112th FS F-16s deployed from

Toledo to Ämari Air Base, Estonia as part of a Theater Security

Package in support of Operation ‘Atlantic Resolve’. Combat

Aircraft was granted exclusive access.

REPORT AND PHOTOS Giovanni Colla and Remo Guidi

usually put the airplanes in the hangars,

so we don’t have to de-ice every day.

Here everything is done outside, so it’s a

pretty good challenge.’

The Ohio rotation in Estonia lasted

about three months. There were two

daily waves of sorties — eight jets in the

morning and six to eight in the afternoon

for a total of about 60 missions per week.

‘We are here to provide presence and

the capability to deter and to defend if

needed,’ explained Barasch. The  rst six

weeks of his squadron’s deployment was

skewed towards air-to-air, with air-to-

ground kicking in from mid-February,

employing the 20mm cannon and

dropping bombs at the Tapa range,

located about 40 miles east of Ämari.

‘We have a lot of pilots who are

upgrading for the next level of

quali cation’, he continued. ‘Normally at

home we don’t have the  exibility we

have here. We are doing CAS [close air

support] missions collaborating with

Estonian JTACs [joint terminal attack

controllers] and it’s great for us to work

with them. There are also JTACs from the

UK. We planned some training exercises

with Swedish Air Force, and they came

here with their Gripens; we also went to

their airspace. We had plans to work with

the Finnish Air Force as well for three days

but it was cancelled due to bad weather.’

Furthermore, the Ohio pilots took time to

 y with the Italian Euro ghters at Ämari

on Baltic Air Policing.

IN THE BALTICS

Above: Carrying

blue BDU-33

practice bombs, a

‘Stingers’ F-16CM

heads out to the

range.

COMBAT REPORT // 112 TH EXPEDITIONARY FIGHTER SQUADRON

80 May 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net

80-81 Viper on the road C.indd 80 20/03/2018 10:55