Military Jets Photography: 2008 07 30 Spottersday at Wittmund

One of the four traditional air defensive units of the German Luftwaffe is based at Wittmundhafen. The unit called Jagdgeschwader 71 (JG-71) is the only one out of four units which is still operational with the F-4F Phantom II. JG-72 at Hopsten has been disbanded a few years ago and that base is nowadays closed. JG-73 based at Laage and JG-74 based at Neuburg are nowadays already converted to the EF-2000 Eurofighter. The main task of this base is to defend the Northern German airspace and guard it against unwanted intruders or unidentified objects.
JG-71 was founded on June 6, 1959 at Ahlhorn, Germany. In 1960 it received the mission from the NATO to defend German airspace during the Cold War. The unit received the traditional name Richthofen exactly 43 years after the death of the Red Baron Manfred von Richthofen. The great name of Von Richthofen was in this way honored with the approval of the Federal Chancellor Heinrich Lübke. In 1963, the unit moved to its current location Wittmundhafen and it was also converted from the F-86 Sabre to the F-104 Starfighter. It was the first unit in Western Germany which was equipped with the Starfighter. In 1974, the Starfighter was retired from its duty at this unit and replaced with the F-4F Phantom II. JG-71 is nowadays still operational with the Phantom. The Richthofen Phantoms are easy to identify by the red letter R on their air intake.
At the spottersday there were four Phantoms presented. The first F-4 was painted blue and had “50 years Phantom” markings. The second Phantom was painted orange, which is the unit color of WTD-61 from Manching-Ingolstadt in Southern Germany. This test unit had its 50th anniversary, to celebrate this a Phantom and a Tornado were painted orange. At Wittmund only the orange Phantom was present, they left the orange Tornado home. The third coloured Phantom was a remaining part of Neuburg which is already converted to the Euro Fighter. This Phantom was sprayed into a black and grey color scheme which symbolized the departure of the Phantom at Neuburg in Southern Germany.The fourth Phantom was the standard grey one but equipped with missiles ready to perform a Quick Reaction Alart mission. On the other side of the static you could find the history of JG-71 aircrafts like the Starfighter, the Sabre and the Buchon. Wittmund is also the homebase of the ex-Israeli A-4's which now serve for BAe Systems. One of these could also be fouind in the static.