NEWS 2003

Three Lockheed C-130H Hercules transport aircraft of the Belgian Air Force have airlifted a first group of Belgian military personal and their equipment to Kabul in the framework of the INTERNATIONAL SECURITY ASSISTANCE FORCE  (ISAF). A total of 160 military personal will form the Belgian contingent to ISAF.

The remains of W/O Jacques Groensteen (350 Squadron), who was killed near Berlin on 20 April 1945 while flying a Spitfire XIV during an operational mission, were repatriated to Belgium to be buried among his comrades in arms and his brother at the Evere (Brussels) cemetery. The wreck and the remains of the pilot were only discovered in 2000 by a group of German specialists at Oranienburg (30 km North of Berlin).

The Council of Minister decided to order a spare Rolls-Royce engine for the fleet of Embraer ERJ135/145s. This is needed because at this moment at each engine maintenance session at least one of the aircraft is grounded. Total cost: estimated 2.686.000 Euro.

The Council of Minister decided that the Belgian Armed Force will participate at an operation under European Union control. The Belgian participation for this 6 month operation will include 3 Agusta A109 combat helicopters

A detachment of the Belgian Armed forces has left Melsbroek airbase to participate at a new, European Union led operation in Macedonia called "Concordia". Besides 20 pilots and ground crews, the detachment will also operate two 18 Battalion Agusta A109 helicopters plus one spare.

Following the reorganisation of the Belgian Armed Forces, both Airbus A310 transports of the Air Component have been repainted revealing somewhat darker sheet lines and their "Belgian Air Force" titles being replaced by "Belgian Defence" accentuating the restructured form of the forces.

Yet another modification to the colour scheme of a Belgian military aircraft. The Marine Alouette III helicopters now sport their serial number (M2) along the fuselage (starboard only) in stead of its more familiar call-sign OT-ZPB.

A Belgian Defence Lockheed C-130H Hercules (CH-03) left Melsbroek airbase today for Kuwait International Airport. The aircraft has been made available to the International Red Cross by the Belgian Government in order to transport humanitarian aid to Iraq.

Lockheed C-130H Hercules (CH-09) left today with the same mission and destination as CH-03 above except that this aircraft will work within the framework of a United Nations contract. The aircraft is wearing UN markings.

The famous, Kleine Brogel based, 31 Squadron won the silver "Tiger Trophy" at the 2003 edition of the Tiger Meet, this year organised by French Armée de l'Air’s "1/12 Escadron" at Cambrais (F.) Between 2 and 8 June 2003, six hundred men, 43 combat aircraft, 7 helicopters and a single AWACS participated at the 39th edition of this annual event. The silver "Tiger Trophy" is awarded to the squadron which obtained the best overall operational score.

In the framework of the "National Defence Days 2003" , which include a.o. the annual airshow at Koksijde on 5 and 6 July and the fleet parade and flypast organised at Oostende on 12 July,  a major disaster exercise was staged at the Koksijde airbase. Simulating a crash of a passenger aircraft, all civil and military rescue and police units of the area were involved in this exercise aimed at testing all men and equipment involved. This is certainly a reassuring operation for the public which, after some airshow accidents in the last few years, has become more sensitive to the level of security at major manifestations.

On two consecutive days two F-16AM's belonging to the 10th Wing of Kleine Brogel had to be scrambled to intercept airliners with radio-communication problems. On 20 June around noon a Lebanese DC-8 coming from Beirut and over flying Germany to its destination Oostende, did not react on several ATC (Air Traffic Control) messages and had to be checked out visually. After interception over Brussels, radio contact was re-established and the airliner continued its flight normally. One day later, around 8.52 AM, Kleine Brogel was again solicited for an interception. Less than 5 minutes later two F-16's of Kleine Brogel's QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) were airborne and went supersonic to catch up with a British airliner on a flight from Greece to Luton (U.K.). Again the machine had lost all contact with the ground-stations, but shortly after being intercepted contact was re-established via the emergency frequency. This again accentuates the proficiency of the Belgian Air Component's pilots and the need for fast action in these seemingly peaceful, post 9/11 times.

Today at 13h45, two more F-16's (F-16A FA53 and F-16B FB-07) were withdrawn from use and flown over to Weelde air base to be placed in long term storage protection. In the mean time it was announced that in September, ten Britten-Norman, BN-2A Islander aircraft will also be withdrawn from use and placed in storage at Weelde. At the same base, Hawker-Siddeley HS-748-2A CS-03 was cut into pieces. The fuselage was cut into two halves with a grinding disk, as were the wings and wingtips. The cutting up of the aircraft is to prevent it from flying again as it will be shipped as spare parts source to Bénin, which, earlier this year already received two airworthy Belgian military HS.748s (CS-01 and CS-02). CS-03 will be transported to Bénin by ship in October. 

At Melsbroek, "Aline" the oldest Airbus still in existence (2nd prototype) has been scrapped. All efforts to save the aircraft have unfortunately been in vain.

Off the coast at Oostende, King Albert II has passed in review 17 Naval vessels some nine of which came from France, United Kingdom, Ireland, Latvia, Morocco, The Netherlands and Spain. The fleet-parade was over flown by some 25 aircraft and helicopters of the Air-, Ground- and Marine components of the Belgian Armed Forces.

Wing Commander R.P. 'Bee' Beamont, DSO, DFC & Bar, famous 609 Squadron CO and post-war test-pilot, has been posthumously awarded the Belgian "Croix de Guerre" at a ceremony held at Duxford (U.K.). Most surviving 609 Squadron veterans amongst whom 'Pinky' Stark, 'Cheval' Lallemant, Ken Adams, Jimmy Stewart, Joe Atkinson, George Jaspis, Jan Mathys en Albert Laforce attended this by times very emotional event.

Colonel Jo Huybens, founder-president of the very active 15th Wing Documentation Centre "Dakota", has passed away. He will be sorely missed by the Belgian aviation community.

The Russian Federation, in the framework of the "Open Skies" treaty, has made an observation over flight of military installations in the Benelux with a specially equipped Antonov An30b. The "open Skies" treaty was signed in 1992 and is effective since 1 January 2002. This agreement allows observation flights with non-armed aircraft in the airspace of 29 European- and North-American countries and this to increase mutual trust between the former enemies of the "Cold War".

For the second time Florennes based n° 1 Squadron organised and hosted the "Recce Meet" between July 28 and August 1 2003. The "Recce Meet" is aimed at sharing experience through academics, flying and social event between several NATO and non-NATO reconnaissance squadrons. It helps creating international links between the squadrons involved and promotes a positive European/NATO defence image. This year's event gathers no less than 47 aircraft of 13 different squadrons and at the same time creates a platform to celebrate n° 1 Squadron's 85th anniversary "in style".   Click here for more information

All technical resources dealing with the B-Hunter UAV's have been centralised in the framework of the 80th artillery battery at Elsenborn. Since 1983, the "Drones Maintenance Detachment"  formed part of the 255th Maintenance Company of the Light Aviation.  Renamed "UAV Maintenance Detachment" the unit now becomes the "Groupe de Maintenance" of 80A. 

The annual exercise VOLCANEX organised by the European Air Group (EAG) is held at Florennes airbase between Monday 1 September and Wednesday 10 September. Simulating a deployment of a multinational air force outside of the European boundaries, the exercise is coordinated and directed from Pratica di Mare in Italy while the operations centre is set up at Florennes. For this year's exercise the emphasis lies on the location and evacuation of a downed pilot during air operation over enemy country (Combat Search and Rescue - CSAR) for which all the specialised means are deployed at Florennes.   Click here for more information

On 3 October 2003 the single piston-engined trainer Siai Marchetti SF.260 will celebrate 250.000 flying hours in Belgian military service since 1970. This record number of flying time was clocked by some thirty aircraft used for lead-in flying training to form military pilots for the three forces as well as some foreign students. Thirty three years after entering service some 24 older generation SF.260M's (out of 36 initially acquired) remain in service as well as 9 more recent SF.260D's obtained as attrition replacements in 1992. The Marchetti was also the mount of the famous aerobatic team the "Swallows" between 1973 and 1981 and again between 1995 and 1997.

Belgian Defence Minister André Flahaut has visited Belgian troops involved in European Union operation "Concordia" at Skopje (Macedonia) and those forming part of the NSE Belukos 13 of KFOR  (Belgian Luxemburg detachment at Kosovo). Operation "Concordia" is the first military operation in the history of the European Union. The Belgian Army deploys 4 Agusta A109 helicopters to the EUFOR. The force led by the European Union is to preserve stability in the former Yugoslav republic after the Albanian resurrection.  Click here for more information

Between 6 and 17 October 2003 the Kleine Brogel based Operational Conversion Unit (OCU) of the 10th Tactical Wing is delegating 6 F-16AM's to Monte Real airbase in Portugal. Four student pilots are to be judged on their air-to-ground operation capabilities by seven instructor pilots belonging to the same unit. For this purpose the Portuguese Air Force provide the services of the COCA-range, a vast operational training area for ground attacks near the town of Alcocheté. The OCU is responsible for the training of the pilots which are in the last phase of become fully operational F-16AM pilots.

A Spitfire Mk. XVIII has arrived at the Stampe & Vertongen Museum at Deurne airport to be stored for the winter-season. The beautiful machine is on public display.

Commandant Raf Gijbels based at Melsbroek airbase will today exceed the 10.00 flying hours on C-130H Hercules mark. On that memorable moment he will be flying his C-130H on a mission to Benin (Africa) in the framework of exercise 'Donga¹. Within the Air Component, Raf Gijbels is the pilot totalising the highest number of flying hours on the venerable Lockheed C-130H Hercules.

The Council of Ministers has approved a Defence directory plan on the future of the Belgian Defence.  As expected the majority of the restructuring and investments will go to the army component and Prime Minister Verhofstadt announced that Belgium will participate in a "multinational transport helicopter capacity". He also pointed out that the number of F-16 fighters of the Air Component will be progressively reduced from 90 aircraft now to 60 in 2015. All 11 C-130H Hercules transports will receive a protective system against surface-to-air missiles and will  be replaced around 2018 by 7 Airbus A700M cargo aircraft which offer a larger total capacity. The pilot training, up to now organised on national level will form part of a multinational cooperation effort. The Search and Rescue unit will remain operational at the Belgian coast and the replacement of its 5 ageing Seaking helicopters is envisaged.

The Czech Government has decided to lease 14 Saab Grippen fighters from Sweden. With this decision Prague has decided not to select for the purchase of 14 second-hand Belgian Air Force F-16AM and BM's offered by the Belgian Government. The Czech Ministry of Defence negotiated with Belgium, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, France and the United States, all of which were offering the sale of second-hand aircraft. The leasing option of new 14 Saab-39 Grippen aircraft offered by Sweden has been favoured by the Czech Republic.

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