H
AVING AIR BASES in close
proximity — Bodø in
Norway to the west, Kallax
in Sweden in the center,
and Rovaniemi in Finland
to the east — has proved
bene cial for the three Nordic countries.
It gives their air forces a low-cost and
e cient way of training with dissimilar
airframes from other nations on a
daily basis.
Lt Col Peter ‘Restless’ Greberg,
commander of 211 Fighter Squadron
of the Swedish Air Force at Norrbottens
yg ottilj F 21, explains, ‘From an
economic point of view, it’s very
e cient and very good. It is based on
the NORDEFCO [Nordic Defence Co-
operation], where all the Nordic countries
want to co-operate, and we just wanted
to take this a bit further. That’s how cross-
border training [CBT] started.’
CBT began as a bilateral training
program between Finland and Sweden,
using the large amounts of airspace in
the north. At the same time, the NATO
alliance began not only looking for
new full members, but furthering the
Partnership for Peace (PfP), a program
aimed at creating trust between NATO
and other nations. Lt Col Erik ‘Folder’
Brettingen, commander of 331 Squadron
of the Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF)
at Bodø Main Air Station, recalls, ‘There
would be participants from NATO
members, members that had just joined
the alliance, and non-NATO members
in the Partnership for Peace exercises.
Back then, the missions were mostly just
to get to know each other. A lot of the
missions were non-tactical, more likefamiliarization rides, where you would
y some formations, rejoins, navigation.
Starting out very basic, those progressed
to gradually become more tactical
exercises. Some of those would be large
force exercises, where the objective
would be to employ together, like a
big package.’
Every ghter aircraft has advantages
and disadvantages, and every ghter
pilot wants to exploit and learn about
them. The PfP exercises provided new
opportunities, as ‘Folder’ continues: ‘I was
here exactly 10 years ago, during a Nordic
Air Meet at Kallax, with participants from
other NATO countries. It was a mutual
wish from the squadrons to have the
opportunity to explore similar-mix ghter
force operations. Given that you’re on the
same side, you have to get used to how
to co-operate with NATO and non-NATO
nations, in a coalition warfare mindset.’Tr ilateral training
With that mindset, new challenges arose
that needed to be solved, as ‘Folder’
illustrates: ‘When the political go-ahead
was given for closer co-operation
between NATO air forces and non-NATO
air forces to do these kind of exercises,
it was quite exciting. It
gave us more training
opportunities. Along with that, there were
parallel e orts — both between ghter
squadrons and the command and control
centers — to achieve a higher degree of
standardization. At the start the gap was
quite huge, as you had a NATO culture,
and a set of TTPs [tactics, techniques and
procedures] that were quite di erent
from non-NATO countries. That could beCross-border
training in action.
A Swedish
JAS 39C Gripen
and Norwegian
F-16AM, plus a
Finnish Hawk
Mk51 and F/A-18C,
fl y together in
2017.94 April 2018 //^ http://www.combataircraft.net
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