The European Air Transport Command (EATC) at Eindhoven air base were the organisers for this year’s air-air-refueling competition, which took place during the FrisianFlag exercise at Leeuwarden airbase during first two weeks of April 2019. This supporting tanker exercise European Air Refuelling Training (EART) was conducted from Eindhoven.
In addition to the Dutch Air Force’s McDonnell Douglas KDC-10, a German Airbus A310 MRTT, an RAF Airbus A330 Voyager, a French Boeing C-135F and an USAF Boeing KC-135 participated this year, however the latter aircraft was only present at Eindhoven for a day, the remaining missions being flown from RAF Mildenhall in the United Kingdom.
EART’s Exercise Director Colonel A Massucci gave an overview of the aerial tankers in Europe. Presently, European countries continue to rely heavily on the USAF’s capacity which became obvious during the Unified Protector operations over Libya in 2011. Since then, steps have been taken with, among other things, the joint purchase of A330 MRTT tankers, the first of which is expected at Eindhoven in early 2020. Ultimately, eight such aircraft will be purchased, some of which to be located at Eindhoven with others at Germany’s Cologne-Bonn.
The French Air Force is also replacing its obsolescent C-135Fs, dating from the ‘60s with the Airbus A330 Phenix, the first aircraft delivered at Istres airbase last October.
In addition, Airbus A400M tactical transport aircraft have been put into service by the German, French, British and Spanish air forces. This aircraft type can also be used for aerial refuelling and the German Air Force has recently completed flight trails with the A400M.
Major Fred Frolic of the Royal Netherlands Air Force talked about structure of the EART exercise and about the objectives. “Not only was refueling of fighters part of the exercise, but also the operational deployment of both tankers and fighters in limited air space. At different heights (with a vertical separation of ~ 150 meters (500 feet), the tankers flew close to each other (with a horizontal separation of 1850 metres) in so-called 'tracks', where the fighters had to close up with the tankers : flying closely in such small airspace was also one of the objectives of this exercise”.
A note on Dutch KDC-10 aircraft, to be retired from service end of 2019. The second such Dutch aircraft has recently been upgraded and will continue to fly for a few years longer it too will be replaced by the A330.
Photos and text by Joris van Boven and Alex van Noye