Airforces - Typhoon school

(Jacob Rumans) #1

10 http://www.airforcesmonthly.com


NEWS Continental Europe


// APRIL 2018 #

Roberto Yáñez

Final Spanish Army Tigre rolled out at Albacete
FAMET WILL receive its
final Tigre HAD helicopters
by the end of the year.
The four helicopters will

comprise HA.28-21 ‘ET-721’
to HA.28-24 ‘ET-724’ and
will be assigned to BHELA I
at Almagro. Pictured fresh

off the production line at
Albacete in central Spain,
HA.28-24 ‘ET-724’, will be the
last HAD delivered to BHELA

I. This helicopter is the
Spanish HAD prototype (c/n
5001), which returned to the
production line in 2017 for

painting and upgrade, having
completed its scheduled
test and armament/systems
integration flights.

AFTER 37 years of duty,
the Fuerzas Aeromóviles
del Ejército de Tierra
(FAMET, Spanish Army
Airmobile Forces) has
retired its final Bölkow Bo
105s, locally designated
HA.15. A ceremony at Base
‘Coronel Sánchez Bilbao’
in Almagro, Ciudad Real,
on December 21, marked
the type’s withdrawal,
prior to retirement the
last day of the year.
The final examples in use
were all Bo 105ATH anti-
tank helicopter variants,
flown by Batallón de
Helicópteros de Ataque
I (BHELA I, Attack
Helicopter Battalion 1)
at Almagro. One of the
final helicopters, HA.15-

45 ‘ET-314’, was specially
marked for the event with
‘FAMET HA-15 1980-2017’
titles on the fuselage.
As more Tigres arrived, the
Bo 105s were progressively
removed from the ranks
and by the beginning of last
year just three remained
operational. During its time
with the FAMET, the type
accumulated 113,000 flying
hours and participated in a
wide range of exercises and
missions, including missions
in Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The FAMET took delivery
of 72 of the type,
comprising 11 Bo 105C,
19 Bo 105GSH, 14 Bo
105LOH and 28 Bo 105ATH
variants; three were lost in
accidents. Dave Allport

Spanish Army retires last Bo 105s


The last Bo 105 in service with BHELA I was HA.15-53 ‘ET-322’, shown here on October 25
last year. At the height of operations, BHELA I had up to 45 Bo 105s on strength. Salvador
Mafé Huertas

Belgium joins multinational tanker force
Belgium has become the
fifth country to join the
Multinational Multi-Role
Tanker Transport Fleet
(MMF). A signing ceremony
at NATO Headquarters in
Brussels on February 14
was attended by defence

ministers from Belgium,
Germany, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands and Norway.
The Belgian cabinet has
allocated almost €260m to
join the air tanker project.
The MMF project was
initiated by the European

Defence Agency (EDA) in
2011, and in July 2016
the Netherlands and
Luxembourg ordered the
first two A330 Multi-Role
Tanker Transport (MRTT)
aircraft. With Belgium
joining, the fleet will now

grow from seven to eight
aircraft, scheduled for
delivery between 2020 and


  1. The aircraft can
    be configured for air-to-
    air refuelling, passenger
    and cargo transport,
    as well as medical


evacuation missions.
The MMF fleet will
be stationed at a
Main Operating Base
in Eindhoven in the
Netherlands with a
Forward Operating Base
in Cologne, Germany.

The fi rst A330 MRTT for the MMF, c/n 1830 (EC-340), arrived at Getafe, Spain from Toulouse on February 21 for conversion to tanker standard. The aircraft
used the callsign ‘AED340’. The MMF fl eet will eventually all carry Dutch national insignia and serials. José Ramón Valero
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