Airforces phantoms at andravida

Russian-Serbian Exercise BARS

BATAJNICA AIR base,

near Belgrade, hosted the

fourth Russian-Serbian

BARS (Brotherhood of

Aviators of Russia and

Serbia) joint exercise

between October 1 and 5.

The manoeuvres

were organised by the

Ratno vazduhoplovstvo

i protivvazduhoplovna

odbrana (RV i PVO,

Serbian Air Force and Air

Defence) and involved

MiG-29 and Mi-8/17 pilots

from this service, together

with the Vozdushno-

Kosmicheskiye Sily

Rossiyskoy Federatsii (VKS,

Russian Aerospace Forces).

Lead unit was the 204.

vazduhoplovna brigada

(204.vb, 204th Air Brigade),

the structure of which

includes MiG-29s of the

101. lovačka avijacijska
     eskadrila (101.lae, 101st
     Fighter Aviation Squadron)
     and Mi-17V-5s of the 890.
     mešovita helikopterska
     eskadrila (890.mhe, 890th
     Mixed Helicopter
     Squadron).
     Serbian

Fulcrums included aircraft

recently returned to

operations after being

donated by Russia. The

VKS sent experienced

pilots from the 968th Test

and Instructors’ Mixed

Aviation Regiment/4th

Centre for Combat

Application and Crew

Training at Lipetsk.

Russian and Serbian

pilots practised interception

of aerial targets and

destruction of aircraft

‘violating’ airspace, plus

air combat manoeuvres

and ground attack.

Crews from the 344th

Centre for Combat

Employment and Retraining

of Army Aviation Personnel

tutored Serbian Mi-17 V- 5

pilots – the Hip training

focusing on combat search

and rescue by day and

night, tactical assault and

extraction of special forces.

Pilots from the two

countries carried out around

50 flights and more than 50

flying hours.

Aleksandar

Radić

Below: Russian pilots fl ew with their Serbian colleagues

in two-seat MiG-29UBs – including 18351 ‘351’, the

former Russian ‘101 Blue’ – and provided simulated

combat in single-seat MiG-29s. Dimitrije Ostojić

10 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com

NEWS

// DECEMBER 2018 #

Continental Europe

More

Atlantique

2 upgrades

FRENCH DEFENCE

minister Florence Parly

has confirmed that

another six Marine

Nationale (French Navy)

Atlantique 2 (ATL2)

maritime patrol aircraft

will be upgraded.

The announcement

came during the

Euronaval 2018

exhibition in Paris from

October 23 to 26. The

Direction générale de

l’armement (DGA), the

French government

defence procurement

agency, has awarded

a contract to Dassault

Aviation and Thales

for the modernisation

work, which will bring

the total number of

aircraft upgraded to

18, compared with the

15 initially planned.

Under the upgrade,

which will extend service

life until 2030, the aircraft

will be fitted with a digital

tactical computer, new

optronic and acoustic

intelligence systems and

a Searchmaster radar.

The first two upgraded

ATL2s are scheduled for

delivery next year and

all 18 are expected to be

handed over by 2025.

Netherlands

buys three

more F-35As

THE DUTCH Ministry of

Defence is to buy three

additional F-35As to

complete a planned fleet

of 37, it was announced

on October 17, defence

secretary Barbara Visser

saying the Lot 15 aircraft

would be delivered in 2023.

To date the Royal

Netherlands Air Force

has ordered two test

aircraft, delivered in

2013 (Lot 3 and 4).

Orders were previously

placed for another eight

to be delivered in 2019

under Lot 11, and 24

aircraft to be delivered in

2020-22 (Lots 12-14). Full

operational deployment

of the Dutch F-35 fleet

is planned for 2024.

Purchase of the

remaining three F-35s

became “financially

feasible” due to a lower

unit price for Lot 11 and

revised exchange rates.

Slovenian PC-9s in live-fi re JTAC exercise
MEMBERS OF the
Slovenian and Macedonian
air forces and air defence
units took part in the
Challenge 2018 bilateral
military exercise between
September 28 and October
4 at the Krivolak military
training range near
Negotino in Macedonia.
The exercise focused on
ground attack operations
conducted in close
co-ordination with Joint
Terminal Attack Controllers
(JTACs) as well as air
defence operations against
aerial targets. Around
100 members of the
Brigada zračne obrambe
in letalstva (BRZOL,
Slovenian Air Defence
and Aviation Brigade)
deployed to Petrovec air
base near Skopje and
to the Krivolak range.

Challenge 2018 saw the

deployment to Petrovec

of three PC-9M Hudournik

(Swift) advanced training and

close air support turboprops

(serials L9-65/638,

L9-66/639 and L9-68/641) of

the 152. letalska eskadrilja

(152.LEESK, 152nd

Fixed-Wing Squadron)

stationed at Cerklje ob

Krki. Igor Božinovski

Above: Slovenian PC-9Ms landed at Petrovec with four 154-lit fuel tanks and a laser

rangefi nder pod under their wings. A number of Mk82 general-purpose bombs were also

deployed for their operations at Krivolak. SV