FLUG REVUE December 2003: Luftwaffe trains with Israel

LUFTWAFFE TRAINS WITH ISRAEL

By Raimond Schulz

For two weeks in September Decimomannu, Sardinia was the setting for an exercise unlike any other. At the invitation of Fighter Wing 73 “Steinhoff” (JG 73 “S”), five F-15D Baz and five F-15I Thunder belonging to the Israeli Air Force relocated to the sunny Mediterranean island.

Luftwaffe and Israel

Originally this encounter was to have taken place at the Germans' home base of Laage in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania as part of a planned “Steinhoff flag exercise”. However, the encounter was thwarted by infrastructure measures that could not be postponed. In consultation with Fighter Wing 71 “Richthofen”, a routine deployment to Decimomannu was then upgraded at short notice to include MiG-29 and F-15 as well.

As a result there was a unique opportunity for dissimilar aircraft combat training (DACT) in the Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation (ACMI) designated area in the west of Sardinia. The entire exercise project received an added boost by the deployment by NATO of an E-3A AWACS from 3 Squadron at Geilenkirchen to Decimomannu for 11 days.

To make the best use of the flying days, three exercise missions were carried out on most days. Thus in the morning block, there would usually be four F-4F's pitted against four F-15D's, followed by four MiG-29's against four F-15I's and finally either two or four F-4F's against two MiG-29's or two F-4F's. The same block was flown in the afternoons, except with F-15D's replacing the F-15I's.

The F-15's did not take part in the midday block, as the Israeli pilots usually flew twice a day and their intensive debriefings would last over the midday period.

In the huge exercise area situated above the Mediterranean it is possible to fly almost entirely without the customary restrictions that beset the Luftwaffe in Germany. For example, supersonic flight below FL 360, the discharge of flares and chaff and the use of jamming are all allowed.

After a short pre-flight briefing in the morning, the AWACS would be the first to take off and would then await the fighters from a position in the north of Sardinia. Details of the planned air battles were transmitted by German ground control intercept controllers, who were also present, by radio to the E-3A. The international crew on board the E-3A then led the flights into the airspace with callsigns like Audi, Porsche, Cobra and Turbo and directed the intercept missions. With the various tactics, it was often necessary to use the fuel-guzzling afterburner, so that the fuel seldom lasted for more than two intercepts per mission.

Despite their age, the Richthofen Phantoms were in isolated cases able to hold their own against the much more agile MiGs and Eagles, especially in the use of long-range AMRAAMs. With good planning, imaginative tactics and flying skill, they even brought off one simulated “kill”. Thus, different variants of altitude separation, different and alternating speeds and criss-cross flight profiles were used to confuse the enemy radar so as to make it impossible to launch any missiles. On the other hand, the F-4F was hopelessly inferior when it came to dogfights.

But the MiGs stood up better against the relatively young Israeli F-15 crews. No doubt this was due to the fact that their crew had accumulated more flying hours on the Russian aircraft than an eastern bloc pilot would ever normally have achieved in his entire flying career. Moreover, most of the pilots had taken part in more air battles against other aircraft types in DACT exercises than any other European jet jockey. Only the US aggressor pilots could possibly hold their own.

Both the Fulcrum and the Eagle have a helmet-mounted sight that is the envy of the Americans, and the Elbit DASH system on the F-15 is regarded as probably the best in the world.

The Boeing F-15I is largely based on the American F-15E Strike Eagle, as a consequence of which it too has the APG-70 radar, albeit a slightly constrained export version. However, the Israelis have installed a lot of hardware and software systems of their own, including highly effective electronic warfare (EW) equipment. With the highly agile Python 4 missile, they can even fire around corners.

One ambitious scenario involved twelve aircraft defending high-value airborne assets (HVAA). In the morning, the Israeli F-15s succeeded in successfully protecting the NATO AWACS simulated in the north of the exercise area against attacking Phantoms and Fulcrums. In the afternoon, four German F-4F's attempted, not quite so successfully, to shoot down the MiGs and Eagles in an unequal contest.

The entire exercise was a fantastic experience for all the crew involved. Now that the MiGs are to be sold to Poland, sadly, from a German point of view, air combat training with this combination of planes will never take place again.

From page 62 of FLUG REVUE 12/2003

Last updated 10 November 2003

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