During the Navy Days Saturday June 30 and Sunday July 1, 26,500 visitors came to take a look behind the scenes of the naval base in Zeebrugge.
During the biennial open days of the Navy, various Belgian and foreign ships open their doors to the general public. The frigate Leopold I, the mine hunters Crocus and Narcis and the patrol vessel Pollux observed the Belgian honors. Foreign vessels such as the Portuguese patrol ship Douro, the German frigate Sachen and the British frigate Montrose were also present. The crews of the ships in question were present for a word of explanation.
Special visitors came in the form of two American Army choppers, a CH-47F Chinook and a HH-60M, who were being readied to be shipped back home after their 9 months deployment in Europe.
From 23th of May until 6th of June the Air Centric Personnel Recovery Operatives Course (APROC) was held at Gilze-Rijen Air Base in The Netherlands. The main focus from this exercise is to practice the personnel recovery procedures when an allied member is downed or trapped in enemy territory.
Several international countries took part in the exercise. The requirement to take part in this exercise is that the country has to be part of the European Personnel Recovery Centre. 12 countries participated in this exercise and 7 of them provided flying assets. Obviously, as the exercise was held in The Netherlands, the Royal Netherlands Air Force participated with several of their CH-47 Chinooks, AH-64D Apaches and AS-532U2 Cougars. France sent a NH-90NFH and two AS555AN’s, Spain participated with an AS-332B and the UK provided two EH101 Merlins. An extremely interesting participant came from Sweden. The Swedish Air Force sent one of their Hkp16A’s to Gilze-Rijen, a type that’s rarely seen outside of Sweden. The Polish Air Force participated with two Mi-24V’s acting as overhead cover during the extraction missions. Last country to provide flying assets came from Italy. The Italians were also the ones that participated with the most aircraft. No less than 7 aircraft came over to Gilze-Rijen to take part in the APROC-exercise. One UH-101A and One HH-101A were sent over to boost the helicopter force. Aside from this the Italian Air Force also participated with three F-2000A Typhoons and a G-550-AEW.
All the above mentioned participants flew from Gilze-Rijen Air Base. Also involved in the exercise were two RNlAF F-16’s, but these flew from their homebase. The exercise was held at 9 different locations in The Netherlands and Belgium. Flying missions started on the 28th of May after all the participating crews had taken part in a couple of theoretical days.
On Sunday, June 24th, La Fête aérienne de Valence-Chabeuil was held at the airport in the commune of Chabeuil, just east of Valence, Department of Drôme, France. Valence-Chabeuil airport is home to the GAMSTAT (Groupement AéroMobilité de la Section Technique de l'Armée de Terre). The mission of GAMSTAT is testing and development of new helicopter types and weapon systems for the introduction into operational service as well as the definition of future needs. Therefore, the unit has a variable, mixed fleet of the various helicopter types of the French Army. The first edition of this bi-annual air festival took place in 1999, making this year’s event the tenth edition.
The Aviation Légère de l'Armée de Terre (ALAT - French Army Light Aviation) presented itself by means of a dynamic OPEX-representation “MALI”. Based on the operations in Mali, the scenario of this tactical demonstration consisted of a light military reconnaissance vehicle having been struck by an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) while on patrol, that is subsequently being attacked by rebels with a Technical (improvised fighting vehicle).
Responding to the distress call, a Pilatus PC-6 Porter scouts the concerning area and having located the struck reconnaissance vehicle, calls in an EC-665 Tigre helicopter to provide Helicopter Fire Support.
Using a SA330 Puma, a special forces team is flown in to neutralize the rebel threat, fast-roping from the helicopter, and proceed to secure a so-called sling zone for an AS532 Cougar to deliver a special forces vehicle.
Then the injured personnel are evacuated by the PC-6 Porter, supported by armed escort provided by the EC-665 Tigre and a SA342 Gazelle helicopter. Finally, the deployed special forces are extracted by the SA330 Puma using the sling-load technique.
Besides participating in the OPEX demo, the EC-665 Tigre performed its own solo demonstration. Also, a pair of Tigre helicopters flew an aerobatic display as the Patrouille de Tigre.
The Armée de l'Air (AdlA - French Air Force) presented itself with the Rafale Solo Display and the Patrouille de France.
Additionally, the flying display program included warbirds, the Flying Bulls, the Belgian A109 Solo Demo Team, and the “Orlik” formation display team of the Polish air force.
The static display line-up of the local helicopters was expanded with a few foreign guests, consisting of a Belgian Alpha Jet E, German CH-53G and EC-135, a Czech Mi-171Sh, and a Danish SH-60R Seahawk.
