Between Sunday the 31st of March, and Friday the 12th of April, more than 50 fighter jets will take part in the aerial exercises over Friesland.
Translation by Thomas Ansell
The Leeuwarder Courant reports that the Frisian Flag practice exercises will take place in airspace over the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark. Aside from F-16 jets from the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNLAF), other planes taking part will come from the US, Germany, France, Poland and Switzerland, amongst others.
The aerial exercises will take place twice daily during the two-week period, beginning at 8 a.m. and ending at 4:30 p.m. There will be no flights in the evenings and on weekends.
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Which aircraft will be taking part? United States: F-16C France: Mirage 2000D Germany: Eurofighter Typhoon Switzerland: F-18 United Kingdom: DA-20 trainer |
Tanker practice
Frisian Flag will also feature refuelling exercises utilising aircraft from the Italian Air Force. These practices will start in Eindhoven and end in Friesland. The practice exercises with tankers will be timed to coincide with other activities. During the 2018 Frisian Flag weeks, three countries – France, Canada and the United States – recalled their refuelling planes in preparation for possible deployment in Syria.
Included among the exercises will be lifelike scenarios to make the practices as close to a real operation as possible. The aircraft will take off from the Leeuwarder base Vliehors and another (undisclosed) location in Friesland. A new radar system will also be put through its paces.
Lieutenant-colonel Ronald van der Jagt, who is head of operations at the Leeuwarden air base, says that the exercise will strive to limit noise disturbance in the region. “The practice locations are mostly over the North Sea, Germany, and Denmark, which gives us the opportunity to spread the noise load as much as possible.”
