Article - Frisian Flag 2018

Frisian Flag 2018 – Topgun goes Dutch
A view from outside the fence

Nestling in the beautiful flat open land of the North Netherlands, some 88 miles North of Amsterdam, the Royal Netherlands Air Force base of Leeuwarden hosted its annual large scale international exercise – Frisian Flag.

The first named “Frisian Flag Exercise” was held at Leeuwarden in 1999. Based on the formats of larger scale exercises such as the Red Flag style exercises run in the USA, Frisian Flag has a Blue force and a Red Force, the Blue force carry out their offensive missions and the Red force defend. Two missions a day are flown (where possible) and the main aerial work is carried out over the North Sea, in a specified area, just off the coast. All types of scenarios are imagined and implemented during the exercise; Air Combat Manoeuvres training (ACM) Dissimilar Air Combat Training (DACT) Air to Ground training, Air to Ship training, Electronic Counter Measure training (ECM) and a separate European Air Refuelling Training (EART) component run from Eindhoven Air Base. The Royal Netherlands Navy also participated this year with HNLMS Evertsen, an air defence and command frigate of the Zeven Provinciën class. A lone FRADU Dassault Falcon 20 was being used in the ECM training role, and Discovery Air Defence services were using their A-4N Skyhawks, flown direct to and from Wittmund, Germany, in the aggressor role.

This years exercise took place between the 8th of April and the 20th of April. Having never been to a Frisian Flag, I thought this year was the time to go, so myself and a couple of friends hired a chalet close by and flew out to the Netherlands for a Frisian Flag experience outside the fence. If this hobby was an Olympic sport, the Dutch would be gold medalists... In an incredible performance of cooperation the Leeuwarden Aviation Group, local towns and Royal Netherlands Air Force put together a safe, friendly and welcoming environment for aviation enthusiasts to view the exercise outside of the wire.

2018 participants were:

RNLAF

F-16 KLU (Koninklijke Luchtmacht)

312 Squadron (Bonzo – Volkel Air Base)

313 Squadron (Tiger – Volkel Air Base)

322 Squadron (Polly – Leeuwarden Air Base))

(twenty three airframes seen in total over three days)

French Air Force

Dassault Mirage 2000D

EC01.003 (Navarre – Nancy Ochey)

EC03.003 (Ardennes – Nancy Ochey)

Dassault Rafale B

EC01.004

ETR02.092

ETR03.004

Dassault Rafale C

ECE01.030

EC02.030

EC03.030

German Air Force

Eurofighter EF-2000

TLG 71 “Richtoffen”

TLG 31 “Boelke”

Polish Air Force

MiG-29 1.ELT

F-16C Block 52+ 31BLT

Spanish Air Force

EF-18M / BM Ala-15

United States Air Force

F-15C/D 123rd FS (Oregon Air Guard) & 131st FS (Massachusetts Air Guard)

Civilian

FRADU Dassault Falcon 20

Discovery Air Defence Services A-4N Skyhawk (Flown out of Wittmund Air Base)

We arrived mid morning on the Wednesday 11th of April after the first mission had already launched. The weather wasn't great, but at least it wasn't raining! We headed straight for the “Spottersbult” at Marsum, ample parking and marshalling by the Leeuwarden Spotters Group was provided. No sooner had we unpacked our camera gear, as the first aircraft started to recover. Once an aircraft enters the approach an alarm bell rings to let the spotters know the action is about to begin. The bell rung constantly for two hours whilst wave after wave of aircraft recovered. The afternoon launch set out at around 13:30 with approximately 50 aircraft launching in turn. Viewed through the fence, this was quite spectacular. It seemed as though after the final aircraft had launched, almost immediately the first aircraft were recovering, the venerable Polish Air Force MiG-29s. Once again, the bell rang for quite some time. Squadron crews came out through out the afternoon to sell their merchandise to the spotters. Whilst not actually being on the base, you almost felt like you were.

Thursday 12th of April was grey and overcast, but still not raining, once again along with hundreds of spotters we joined the throng at the Marsum end for a repeat of the previous day, wall to wall action from 9:30 onwards with a brief gap in between missions. Situated in what would normally be the carpark for the spotters mound was a food stand, a couple of merchandise stands and some toilet blocks, knowing the numbers of people that would be attending, the Leeuwarden Spotters Group had really thought things through and tried to cater for everyone.

When we awoke on Friday the 13th, the sun was shining and it looked like it would hold all day, the wind had swung round which meant they would be coming off the opposite end. There are limited parking options at the opposite end, so we decided to head to Marsum again to see if we could get some different photos. Sadly whilst the weather was great over the base, the weather over the range was not so good. The morning mission was cancelled, the RNLAF Leeuwarden Twitter feed confirmed this for us and promised to keep us up to date. The weather improved for the afternoon and the mission went ahead but with a smaller number of aircraft.

On all three days we had at least one different support aircraft, a Polish Air Force AN-28, C-130 and a RNLAF KDC-10. Frisian Flag really was a spotter friendly exercise that will be on my “to do list” every year from now on.

Author/photography by Stuart Skelton