All reports

EART 2018

EART 2018

From April 9th to April 20th Eindhoven Airbase is host to the 5th edition of the European Air-to-Air Refueling Training (EART). The idea to centralize a combined exercise with Frisian Flag was born in 2013 when Air-to-Air refueling assets flew from their home base. In 2015 we visited the second…
Flying with the 100th ARW refueling Luftwaffe Tornados

Flying with the 100th ARW refueling Luftwaffe Tornados

RAF Mildenhall is home to the 100th Air Refuelling Wing which fly the the Boeing KC-135R & under the command of the 351st Air Refuelling Squadron. On arrival at the operations building of the wing you are greeted with a large sign displaying the initials NKAWTG which means ‘Nobody Kicks Ass Without…
RNLAF F-35A Lightning II deploys to the Netherlands

RNLAF F-35A Lightning II deploys to the Netherlands

Back in January 2015, in a debate with local residents from Volkel Air Base, Minister of Defence Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert announced her commitment to send a F-35 Lightning II to the Netherlands for so called noise perception flights. One year of planning later the flights took place at the end of…
Flying with the 100th ARW Refueling Aviano F-16s

Flying with the 100th ARW Refueling Aviano F-16s

It's 5am on a dreary Monday morning more likening to a day in November rather than early July. I was asked to meet at the main gate at RAF Mildenhall home of the 100th Air Refuelling Wing which fly the Boeing KC-135R Stratotanker, on arriving at to the operations building of the 100th ARW, 351st ARS…
EART 2015

EART 2015

The 2015 edition of the European Air-to-Air Refuelling Training took place at Eindhoven Airbase for two weeks in April and supported Frisian Flag. The emphasis was again to work from a DOB in a multinational environment. It even was more prominent in this year’s training since additionally to last…
Air National Guard at Geilenkirchen

Air National Guard at Geilenkirchen

In order to add some inflight footage to our E-3A AWACS Operations article, we joined a flight on board Iowa Air National Guard (ANG) KC-135 Stratotanker, out of Geilenkirchen Air Base in the end of March this year. This was possible as the ANG units provide air refueling assets to the NATO E-3A…
NATO E-3A AWACS Operations

NATO E-3A AWACS Operations

Over 3 years of NATO E-3A operations in Afghanistan, in light of ISAF, came to an end when the last E-3A AWACS landed at NATO Air Base Geilenkirchen, Germany on September 25, 2014. It was one of many events for the E-3A Component last year. We visited Geilenkirchen to review 2014 and to look forward…
Frisian Flag 2013

Frisian Flag 2013

Frisian Flag 2013 was held from April 15th - 26th at Leeuwarden Air Base and the nearby Dutch, German and Danish airspace over the North Sea. This year’s focus was on international cooperation and integration. Touchdown Aviation got the opportunity to see this multi national cooperation at…
Dutch Blaze 2011

Dutch Blaze 2011

After the successful first exercise last year, RNLAF exercise Dutch Blaze was held again from June 20th – July 1st 2011. Although the name remained the same, the exercise had reduced in size and participants and had a different character than last years exercise. A couple of things remained the same…
Slovak Air Force

Slovak Air Force

The last decade the Slovak Air Force saw some major changes with the withdrawal of several aircraft types and a restructure of it's organization as a result of the NATO membership in 2004. From Monday May 24th until Friday May 28th Touchdown Aviation was guest at Malacky-Kuchyña and Prešov Airbases…