Frisian Flag and EART 2015 by Leonard van den Broek and Paul Mali

F-15 fans in Europe got a treat on March 31st, when the 159th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron touched down at Leeuwarden air base in the Netherlands. Comprised of aircraft and personnel from both the Florida Air National Guard’s 125th Fighter Wing and the Oregon ANG’s 142nd FW, the 159th EFS was starting a six-month European deployment in support of , the US military’s increased presence in Europe in the wake of the Ukraine crisis.

The deployment to Leeuwarden, the start of the first-ever Air National Guard theater security package, allowed the 159th to take part in the annual multinational Frisian Flag air exercise, which commenced two weeks later. F-15s from the US Air Forces in Europe, in particular the United Kingdom-based 48th Fighter Wing, have been regular Frisian Flag participants since the first exercise in 1992, but the CONUS-based F-15s were an unusual and valued addition.

In addition to the 159th EFS, participants in this year’s Frisian Flag included Finnish F/A-18Cs, German Eurofighter Typhoons, Polish F-16C/Ds, Spanish EF-18M/BMs and Dutch F-16AMs. The US Eagles, German Typhoons and Finnish Hornets were tasked with both offensive and defensive air-to-air missions. The Spanish Hornets and the F-16s were employed on both air-to-air and air-to-ground missions.

Similar to exercises like "Red Flag" and "Maple Flag," the aim of Frisian Flag is to practice multinational mixed fighter operations. Frisian Flag also combines large-scale air operations with simulated ground based and airborne threats, such as German Air Force SA-6 and SA-8 surface-to-air missiles.

Air-to-air refueling is another dimension of modern air combat. Simultaneously with Frisian Flag, the refueling exercise EART 15 (European Air-to-air Refueling Training 2015) took place at Eindhoven air base, some 140 miles south of Leeuwarden. More than just a "support act" for Frisian Flag, the second edition of EART was a fully-fledged exercise on its own.

In 2012, the European Defence Agency declared development of European air-to-air refueling (AAR) capability to be a priority. Two of EDA’s objectives were to reduce the fragmentation of Europe’s tanker forces and to optimize the use of assets. The lack of interoperability is still a major issue three years later, reducing the effectiveness of European tankers: for each combination of tactical aircraft and tanker, aircraft type, technical and operational clearances are required before fuel can be transferred on an operational basis. With many different tanker types in use across Europe (including the Airbus A310 and A330, McDonnell-Douglas KDC-10, Lockheed KC-130, and Boeing KC-135 and KC-767) obtaining AAR clearances usually requires bilateral planning, and certification has been a slow process.

With four different tanker types taking part (French KC-135FR, German A310, Italian KC-767 and Dutch KDC-10) EART 15 helped to address this challenge. And Frisian Flag, with five European air forces taking part, provided a great opportunity for EART participants to acquire "new" AAR clearances.

Knowledge development for the planning and tasking of tanker missions was a second major goal of EART 15. The exercise started with single-ship tanker missions and gradually offered more complex scenarios, evolving into tanker cell operations supporting Frisian Flag’s composite air operations (COMAO) missions.

Acknowledgements

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