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Practicing Air to Air Refuelling; Eindhoven, April 4, 2019

European Air Refuelling Training 2019; Text and Photograph's by Alex van Noye

This year, the European Air Transport Command (EATC) at Eindhoven Air Base organized the tanker exercise European Air Refueling Training (EART) for the 6th year in a row. The tankers from different partner nations will fly daily missions from Eindhoven Air Base to refuel the combat aircraft participating in Frisian Flag 2019.

The EART 2019 took place this time from Monday April 1st to Friday April 12th. The tanker exercise is held in parallel to Frisian Flag, which is being held simultaneously at Leeuwarden Air Base. During these two weeks, international parties will train intensively together to be ready for future European deployment in crisis areas around the world. The Dutch participation during the EART will consist of a KDC-10 "boom tanker" from the 334 Squadron from Eindhoven Air Base. This year the Germans are again involved in the exercise with an Airbus A310 MRTT. This tanker, from Cologne-Bonn, is a tanker equipped with a hose drogue system. The French participation consists of a C-135FR Stratotanker from Istres. The aircraft was replaced in the first week by another C-135FR due to technical problems. In the second week of the exercise there were almost no flight been made with the French tanker. The French tankers are equipped with both a boom and a drogue system. This year a KC-135 Stratotanker also joined the exercise from the United States Air Force from Mildenhall in England. This tanker would fly most of its missions from England, but also flew a few days from Eindhoven. The American tanker is just like the French tanker equipped with both a boom and a drogue system. An Airbus A330 MRTT Voyager from the UK flew this year for the first time along. This tanker is based at RAF Brize-Norton in the south of Great Britain. The Voyager is only equipped with a drogue system. However, updates are planned to also update the aircraft with a boom system.

During the EART at Eindhoven Air Base, Colonel Andrea Massucci is the so-called "Exercise Director" or the commander of the exercise. Massucci is from the Italian Air Force and he explained the current status of deployable tankers in Europe. At the moment, the European countries rely heavily on the tanker capabilities of the United States Air Force. This became clear during Operation Unified Protector during the actions above Libya in 2011. Since this deployment, steps have been taken by various

European countries for a joint purchase of the Airbus A330 MRTT tanker according to Massucci. The first model of this new type (the M-1) is expected at Eindhoven Air Base at the beginning of early 2020. Ultimately, eight of these heavy aircraft will be purchased by the European partners. A part of these tankers will be located at Eindhoven Air Base and a part at the German Cologne-Bonn Air Base. The French Air Force is also busy replacing the obsolete Boeing C-135F Stratotanker with this same type. These French tankers have been in use since the 60s and really needs to be replaced. The French fleet is being replaced by the Airbus A330 Phenix, which is a derivative of the A330 MRTT. The first new French tanker was delivered in October last year to the French airbase Istres says Massucci.

Major Fred "Frolic" of the Royal Netherlands Air Force told about the structure of the EART exercise and about the objectives during this training. Refueling jet fighters was not only part of this exercise. Flying both tankers and combat aircraft together in a small area was also an important goal. At different flight levels, with a vertical separation of approximately 150 meters (500 feet), the tankers fly close to each other. The tankers fly approximately one after the other with a horizontal separation of 1850 meters (1 Nautical Mile). The tankers fly here in so-called tanker tracks, whereby the combat aircraft must find their way to the tankers. This principle of formation flying in a relatively small airspace is one of the training objectives of this exercise. The drogue tankers usually fly a bit lower in the tracks, because then the hoses are less influenced by the air currents. It is easier for combat aircraft to attach to the hose Fred explains. For the tankers which are equipped with the boom it is the other way around. These tankers often fly at a higher altitude when they refuel other aircraft. Fred indicates that the deployment of tankers and the ability to refuel all different types of combat aircraft is of great strategic importance for the European air forces. The use of tankers is crucial to be able to overcome a crisis situation. The tankers ensure that the aircraft are not only refueled, but sometimes also ensure that aircraft are taken home safely after their mission. It may therefore be clear that the EART is an important training course for everyone involved.

During the EART the procedures of the Air to Air Refueling (AAR) will be trained whereby the same procedures will be trained in an international context. One of the most important objectives of the EART is to receive different receivers and not just the own combat aircraft for a tanker crew. According to Fred, it is important that all crew members can blindly apply the same standard to operate safely. During the training the crews will be briefed daily for the customers they will receive. The crews are told in which tanker track they will operate and how many tankers will fly in that track. Also the practicing of the different rendezvous procedures for the different types of tankers are exuberantly practiced by the participants of Frisian Flag and the EART. Now that the Airbus A330 MRTT will be introduced from next year, operational flights of the Dutch KDC-10 fleet will come to an end. Fred indicated that the Dutch KDC-10 with registration number T-264 will be taken out of service around the end of 2019. The other aircraft, the T-235, has recently received a major update and will continue to fly for a few years before it will be replaced by the A330 MRTT. The Dutch KDC-10 aircraft will be offered for sale on the market. If no buyer is found for these aircraft, the aircraft may be scrapped Fred says. The KDC-10 was for many years an important aircraft for the Netherlands and its partners, partly due to its large reach and capacities. Fred indicates that with pain in his heart he will say goodbye to the KDC-10 when the time comes.




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