The Aviation Magazine No 58 July-August edition of The Aviation Magazine | Page 24

leadership skills of the participants. While routine daily training missions also include the develop-
ment of these skills, such missions involve a limited number of pilots and aircraft. During Frisian
Flag, experienced pilots are given the opportunity to devise, develop and ultimately carry out a mis-
sion in a much larger context. The daily training missions are planned, led and briefed by a different
participant/NATO partner each day. This pushes leadership skills to their limits and ensures that
everything possible is gained from the training. In this way, the pilots develop leadership skills that
can also be expected of them in actual missions.
Exercise missions
Missions flown during Frisian Flag include air defence missions, offensive (strike) missions, mis-
sions to protect other aircraft and missions carried out to eliminate static and moving targets on land
or at sea. The purpose of air defence missions is to deny enemy aircraft access to a certain area.
When eliminating targets on the ground, fighter aircraft operate independently or in coordination
with units of the army or navy (forward air controllers). The Royal Netherlands Navy, its ship
HNLMS Evertsen and one of its air defence and command frigates of the Zeven Provincien class
also participated in the exercise.
Frisian Flag 2018
From April 8th to April 20th, Leeuwarden Air Base hosted Frisian Flag, one of Europe's largest in-
ternational aerial warfare exercises. This year, fighter aircraft from six nations took part in the exer-
cise: France, Germany, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and the United States of America.
More than 70 aircraft gathered at Leeuwarden Air Base for this year's edition of Frisian Flag. Up to
around 50 aircraft participated in each training mission, which were flown twice a day.
International
The missions of today have an increasingly international focus. Missions are no longer carried out
by one country only; instead countries seek cooperation with each other. Such a cooperation starts
during the training and instruction stages. In fact, an international coalition has almost become a
prerequisite for effective operations. The future capability to perform air defence tasks and conduct
international missions will at all times be reliant on training in an international context.
Leadership
Today's missions are not only characterized by international cooperation but also by high expecta-
tions of (international) leadership and precision in execution. Frisian Flag strives to develop the
The average flight lasts only for an hour and a half, each flight is preceded by a substantial period
of preparation and comprehensive analysis is carried out after each flight to ensure that everyone
makes the most of the training exercise. Unlike on other major exercises, this analysis is carried out
in a joint area in which all pilots are present. In this way, lessons learned are shared with all exer-
cise participants.
Scenarios
During the Frisian Flag exercise, all capabilities of the different fighter aircraft are used to ensure
preparedness for any kind of mission. Experience gained during previous missions is analyzed ex-
tensively and applied during subsequent missions. During Frisian Flag, larger and more complex
scenarios in which the fighter aircraft are exposed to higher levels of air-to-air and surface-to-air
threats are also completed. While exercises will never replace the real thing, they are the best way
to prepare pilots for deployment during operations.
(credit: Royal Netherlands Air Force)
The Aviation Magazine would like to thank the Public Affairs team of Leeuwarden AB for their hos-
pitality and support.