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Belgian Air Force
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The Air Component, formerly the Belgian Air Force, is the air arm of the Belgian Armed Forces. The current commander is Lieutenant-General Gerard Van Caelenberge.
Early yearsThe Belgian Air Force was founded in 1909 as a branch of the Belgian Army. It originally carried the name of Compagnie des Ouvries et Aérostiers. At the start of the First World War, the military aviation branch consisted of four squadrons equipped with Farman aircraft. In March 1915 it was expanded to six squadrons. During the war the Belgian squadrons were equipped with Nieuport 10, Nieuport 11, Nieuport 17, Hanriot HD.1, SPAD S.VII, SPAD S.XIII and Sopwith Camel. One of its' pilots, Willy Coppens, even became the top ranking "balloon buster" of German observation balloons of World War I.
During the interbellum, the Belgian Air Force flew with Breguet 19.
At the start of World War II, the Army Air Force had three active Air Force Regiments. Planes which were used by those regiments were the Renard R-31 and R-32, the Fiat CR.42, the Hawker Hurricane, the Gloster Gladiator, the Fairey Fox, and the Fairey Battle. These were massacred by the much superior German Luftwaffe in the German invasion of May 1940.
The following (possibly incomplete) table lists the inventory of the Belgian Air Force as in May 1940:
| Aircraft | Origin | Type | Year acquired | In service |
|---|
| Fairey Battle | | Light bomber | 1938 | 16 | | Fairey Fox | | Light bomber & observation | 1933-1938 | 154 | | Fiat CR.42 | | Fighter | 1940 | 27 | | Fokker F.VII | | Transport | 1935 | 9 | | Gloster Gladiator | | Fighter | 1937 | 22 | | Hawker Hurricane | | Fighter | 1939 | 20 | | Koolhoven FK.56 | | Advanced Trainer | 1940 | 12 | | LACAB GR.8 | | Bomber prototype | 1936 | 1 | | Morane-Saulnier MS.230 | | Observation | 1932 | 23 | | Potez 33 | | Light bomber & reconnaissance | 1930 | 10 | | Renard R.31 | | Observation | 1935 | 33 | | Renard R.38 | | Fighter prototype | 1940 | 1 | | SABCA S-47 / Caproni Ca.335 | / | Light bomber prototype | 1940 | 1 | | Savoia-Marchetti SM.73 | | Transport | 1940 | 8 | | Savoia-Marchetti SM.83 | | Transport | 1940 | 3 | | Stampe-et-Vertongen SV-5 | | Training | 1936 | 21 | | Stampe-et-Vertongen SV-22 | | Training | 1933 | 10 | | Stampe-et-Vertongen SV-26 | | Training | 1933 | 10 |
Before the outbreak of the war Belgium also sought to equip its Aviation Militaire with foreign designs, ordering production licences in Poland and France and aircraft in the USA. However, the acquired licences could not be used until May 1940 and the aircraft produced in the USA were eventually delivered to France and to the United Kingdom. The following table summarizes Belgiums foreign orders:
After the surrender of Belgium on 28 May 1940, a very small Belgian Air Force in exile was created in Great Britain. This small force was active within the British Royal Air Force, and its squadrons were equipped with versions of the much better aircraft, the Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Typhoon.
During the Cold War
On October 15, 1946, the Belgian military aviation was turned into an autonomous force, independent of the Belgian Army.
During the Cold War, at various times the Belgian Air Force operated the following planes:
- The British Gloster Meteor fighter
- The American Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighter-bomber
- The American Douglas C-47B Skytrain and Fairchild C-119F/G Flying Boxcar transports.
- The French Fouga Magister jet trainer
- The American Boeing 727-200 transport
- The British Hawker Siddeley HS 748
- The Canadian Avro-Canada CF-100 Canuck interceptor
- The British Hawker Hunter attack plane
- The American Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a NATO standard fighter/interceptor of many countries, including The Netherlands, Belgium, West Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey, Denmark and the USAF
- The French Dassault Mirage 5
- The British Britten-Norman BN-2B-21 Islander
- The American Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport
- Douglas DC-3 passenger transport
- The American General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, a NATO standard fighter/interceptor of many countries, including Norway, Denmark, The Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, and the USAF.
- The French/German Alpha Jet
- The Italian SIAI-Marchetti SF.260M/D propellor-driven trainer aircraft
and helicopters:
Post-Cold War reforms - COMOPSAIRIn the beginning of the nineties, the end of the Cold War caused the Belgian government to restructure the Belgian Armed Forces in order to cope with the changed threats. This meant cutbacks and crimping of the Armed Forces. The Belgian Air Force was hit hard and saw its strength more than halved with the disbanding of the 3rd Tactical Wing in Bierset (1994); the disbanding of the 1st Fighter Wing in Beauvechain; the 9th Training Wing in Sint-Truiden; and the Elementary Flying School in Goetsenhoven (1996).
In 2002, the Belgian government decided to emulate Canada and impose a "single structure" on its armed forces in which the independent Belgian Air Force ceased to exist. The former Air Force became the Belgium Air Component (COMOPSAIR) of the Armed Forces. COMOPSAIR nowadays consists of 2nd Tactical Wing in Florennes and 10th Tactical Wing in Kleine Brogel, both flying F-16's in 4 squadrons. Out of the 160 F-16s originally bought by Belgium, only 105 were upgraded; with further reductions to 72 aircraft in 2005; and planned to 60 by 2015. The 1st Wing at Beauvechain is assigned with the training of pilots for which the Marchetti propellor-driven trainer aircraft is used for elementary training, and the Alpha Jet for advanced training. Advanced fighter training occurs in the F-16 at Kleine Brogel.
COMOPSAIR still uses the Lockheed C-130 Hercules in the 15th Air Transport Wing based at Melsbroek, Belgium, which in time is planned to be replaced by seven Airbus A400M transport planes. VIPs are transported with Embraer 135/145 jets, the Dassault 20/900 and the Airbus A310. The Sea King helicopters and the Alouette III SAR helicopters will be active for years. They will be replaced by NH-90's (10: 4 NFH + 4 TTH + 2 TTH's in option).
In 2004, as part of the new unified structure, the Army Aviation units were transferred to the COMOPSAIR. These contain the Agusta A109 attack helicopter, and the Alouette II training and recce helicopter.
Within the framework of its commitments within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. Belgium has allotted its 72 F-16s to NATO purposes. Two squadrons with a total of 16 aircraft have been designated for use by the Rapid Reaction Forces.
In February 2008, minister of defence Pieter De Crem announced that due to increasing problems and poor servicability, the 2 A310's are to be replaced as soon as possible by two aircraft in the same class.
Recent OperationsIn January 1991, 18 Mirage 5 aircraft of the 3rd Tactical Wing were deployed to Turkey's Diyarbakir air base. During this operation, Belgian planes carried out several flights along the Iraqi border. After this operation the obsolete Mirage 5's were phased out.
On July 15, 1996 a C-130 with serial CH-06 carrying 37 members of the Dutch Army Fanfare Band and 4 crew crashed at Eindhoven after a birdstrike while executing a go-around resulting in the loss of power to three engines. 34 Netherlands military were killed as a result of the crash and onboard fire, only 7 survived.
From October 1996 on, the Belgian Air Force cooperated with the Dutch Royal Air Force in the Deployable Air Task Force in patrolling former Yuguslavian airspace. F-16s of the 2nd and 10th Tactical Wings, operating from the Italian bases of Villafranca and Amendola, were assigned to missions insuring the control of a No-Fly Zone over Yugoslavia, and providing the air support necessary for UN and NATO troops. Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, 12 Belgian F-16s carried out 679 combat sorties - the first time since the second World War that Belgian aircraft took part in active war operations in enemy territory - against Serbia during the Kosovo crisis. The last Belgian F-16 detachment left Italy in August 2001.
On March 29, 2004, four F-16s from Kleine Brogel were transferred under NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission to the Sioulai air base in Lithuania for three months, where they were employed in monitoring the Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian skies.
In July 2005, four F-16s deployed to Afghanistan to support the NATO International Security Assistance Force.
On September 9, 2005, an F-16 crashed near Vlieland, The Netherlands. The pilot was killed.
In 2006, Belgian Hunter unmanned air vehicles deployed to the Democratic Republic of the Congo as part of the EU EUFOR peacekeeping mission.
On May 5, 2006, a Belgian C-130 "Hercules" undergoing updating at the Sabena Technics was destroyed when the hangar that it was in burned to the ground. The C-130 and three commercial planes were destroyed beyond recovery. The Belgian Air Force announced its intention to acquire a second hand C-130 to replace the one lost in the fire. A month later, the Air Component acquired a C-130E from the American operator Evergreen (serial N130EV, to become CH14).
On December 1, 2006 the Belgian Air Force deployed again under Baltic Air Policing mission four F-16 MLU aircraft to Siauliai Air Base in Lithuania, where they are used to protect the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
As from August 2008, four F-16's will be deployed to Kandahar in Afghanistan in support of the Dutch land forces.
On June 27, 2008 an Agusta A109 helicopter crashed in Halleux. The pilot, co-pilot, a doctor and a nurse where injured.
See also
Bibliography- Pacco, John. Belgisch Leger/Armee Belge: Het Militair Vliegwezen/l'Aeronautique Militaire 1930-1940. Aartselaar, Belgium, 2003. ISBN 90-801136-6-2.
External links
comp/index.asp?LAN=en", "Official website")
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