Civil protection - Exercise at Hanover Airport: Air Force draws good balance
The German Air Force has summed up the "Hannover Shield 2023" air force exercise with satisfaction. "We completed a total of seven training flights over the north this week and were able to gain valuable insights into our capabilities in national and alliance defense," said Colonel Björn Andersen, Commodore of Tactical Air Wing 71 "Richthofen" from Wittmund in East Frisia, in a press release on Thursday. The operation in cold temperatures was particularly helpful.
For the first time, the air force practiced protecting a large city from the air from a civilian airport - for example from drones or low-flying cruise missiles. The aircraft could detect dangers in the air at an early stage and take countermeasures, and they supplemented ground-based air defense missile systems. The Eurofighters were parked on an open airfield at Hanover Airport. "We had sub-zero temperatures on Tuesday night, which is why our jets looked like icicles the next morning," Andersen explained. For this reason, an early training round was canceled. Soldiers used hot air blowers to get the jets ready for take-off.
The task now is to develop standardized procedures so that the fighter jets can be de-iced quickly away from military bases if necessary. At the beginning of the week, three unarmed Eurofighters landed at Hanover Airport. For the first time, the German Air Force stationed fighter aircraft and personnel at a civilian airport for several days in order to better protect a major German city from airborne threats in the event of an emergency.
In June, Germany hosted "Air Defender 2023", the largest deployment exercise of air forces since the founding of NATO. Twenty-five nations with 250 aircraft and around 10,000 soldiers took part. A fictitious scenario was used in the airspace over Germany to train how the western defense alliance reacts to an attack by an eastern alliance and recaptures territories already occupied by the enemy.
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- The Eurofighters used Hanover-Langenhagen Airport in Lower Saxony for their training flight during the Hannover Shield 2023 exercise, where they practiced disaster control scenarios.
- Colonel Björn Andersen, from the Military's Tactical Air Wing 71 "Richthofen" based in Wittmund, Germany, supervised the operations at Hanover Airport and was satisfied with the outcome.
- In the tight schedule for seven training flights, a poor weather condition in Hanover forced a cancellation while the German Air Force's jets were covered in ice.
- The Military will now focus on developing rapid de-icing procedures for fighter jets at civilian airports, like Hanover-Langenhagen, for emergencies lack the military bases' amenities.
- Germany had previously participated in a larger exercise, Air Defender 2023, where 25 NATO nations practiced defense strategies against an eastern alliance attack, training at various German airports, including Langenhagen, near Hanover.
Source: www.stern.de
