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Different Generations Meet Each Other; Volkel, June 15, 2019

Dutch Air Force Days 2019, part 1; Text and Photograph's by Alex van Noye

The Dutch Air Force Days, which this year was held for the first time in three years at Volkel Air Base, attracted a total of 240,000 spectators. The absolute stars of the airshow were the two Dutch F-35 Lightning IIs which were flown in from the United States. The good old F-16 was again in the spotlight during the show.

This year the Dutch Air Force Days were again held for the first time since 2016 at Volkel Air Base. The Air Force Days were not held for the past two years because there was not enough staff available and the event did not fit into the current defense budget. A large part of the Royal Netherlands Air Force personnel was deployed abroad. The Air Force also did not have a demonstration team during this period. This year, the Royal Netherlands Air Force has again invested in the Air Force Days, because they want to invest in the future of this branch of defense. The organization of the Air Force Days had the same budget this year as in previous years. This year, the Dutch Air Force is focusing more on recruiting new personnel. This year interested parties can go through a short route to see if they are suitable for a position with the air force and you people see what they can expect from the air force. Part of the site is designed as a modern deployment area to give the visitor a sense of how life at the Air Force is going. Despite the bad weather, many spectators have come to this event. More than 100,000 people attended Volkel on Friday. On Saturday, no fewer than 150,000 visitors were on the move at the airbase in Brabant. In the past, the Dutch Air Force Days were held twice every three years. This will from now on be adjusted to once every two years. The location of the Air Force Days changes every edition between Volkel, Leeuwarden and Gilze-Rijen.

For the many visitors of the Air Force Days, the brand new Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II was the highlight of the air show. On Thursday evening, the two F-35s from the Royal Netherlands Air Force arrived at Volkel Air Base. The two planes were flown to the Netherlands especially for the Air Force Days and would depart to the United States after the weekend. One of the F-35s flew in a formation with the F-16s of the Royal Netherlands Air Force at the end of the Airpower Demo. The Airpower Demo is always seen as the highlight of the Air Force Days. During this demonstration, the Air

Force with all the equipment in use shows how the various aspects of the armed forces work together. The demonstration always starts with attacks from the F-16s and is followed by an air assault of the helicopters of the Defense Helicopter Command (DHC) and the soldiers of the Airmobile Brigade of the Royal Netherlands Army. One of the other new aircraft of the Royal Netherlands Air Force during the Air Force Days was the Airbus A330 MRTT tanker. The aircraft was parked at the static show in the primer colors of the manufacturer. In the spring of 2020, the first aircraft of a series of eight aircraft will arrive at Eindhoven Air Base as the replacement for the outdated McDonnell Douglas KDC-10. The Lockheed F-104G Starfighter from the Dutch Starfighter Foundation was also set up in a hangar at Volkel. This foundation wants to restore an old Dutch Starfighter and make it fly worthy again. To symbolize the different generations at the Air Force, a Spitfire, an F-16 and an F-35 made a joint formation flight past along the spectators.

In addition to the presentation of the brand new F-35, the F-16 Fighting Falcon was, as always, the center of attention during the Air Force Days. The fighter plane has been in service with the Royal Netherlands Air Force for exactly four decades this year. In honor of the anniversary, an F-16 with a special tail painting was unveiled on Friday at the Volkel Air Base. The 40-year anniversary of the F-16 at the Air Force coincides with the introduction of the successor to the F-16, as this F-35 will do its official entry into the Royal Netherlands Air Force later this year at Leeuwarden. Just as with the introduction of the F-35, the arrival and introduction of the F-16 produced a true media spectacle. At the time, the media heard statements such as "weapon purchase of the century" and "the largest investment in Dutch defense ever made". The F-16 was the first aircraft of the Air Force that could operate in the multi-role. The fighter plane can switch between multiple roles during the same mission. The F-16 was originally designed as an air defense fighter, but it also turned out to be extremely suitable for attacking ground targets. The F-16 was in many ways an innovative aircraft at the time. The F-16 was the first aircraft to fly on a fly-by-wire basis. When the F-16 was introduced, this system was revolutionary for aviation. At the end of the 90s, the Dutch F-16s were drastically modernized during the Mid Life Update (MLU) program. The F-16s really got a second life with the Air Force after this update.

The fact that moving aircraft over a very long distance is quite a logistical operation was evident from the ferry of the two F-35s from the United States. The two aircraft would be accompanied during their ferry by a KDC-10 from Eindhoven Air Base. Due to problems with the tanker, the flight would take almost a day and a half longer. The accompanying tanker was unable to fuel the aircraft in the air due to a technical malfunction. They had to send the second tanker from Eindhoven to the United States to get the two F-35s to the Netherlands in time for the Air Force Days. The two aircraft landed around 10 o'clock in the evening at Volkel on the evening before the Air Force Days. Also during the Air Force Days, the aircraft had bad luck. When starting up both aircraft for the Airpower Demonstration, one F-35 had to abort its startup sequence. Afterwards it turned out that a sensor of the landing gear was broken, so that the pilot received false information in the cockpit. For safety reasons, an aircraft stays on the ground at such a moment until a thorough inspection has been carried out on the F-35. The stranded F-35 would remain on the ground at Volkel for almost two weeks after the Air Force Days. Spare parts had to be sent that are only available in the United States. These problems will be solved in the future as soon as the European F-35 plant is running at full speed. Despite the setback, the Air Force was proud to show its newest member of the family to the public during the Air Force Days.




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