Kleine-Brogel, 03/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - During September and October this year, Belgium is hosting two separate military exercises, Green Blade 2012 and Pegasus. The first is part of the European Defence Agency (EDA) helicopter training programme and the second is an exercise for Belgian, Spanish and Italian special forces. The idea of combining the two was swiftly reached within the Belgian army which could not deploy as many air means as it would have liked. This has also been an advantage for the EDA, as it gave it an opportunity to make its own exercise more attractive. The results of this arrangement were presented during a demonstration day organised, on Tuesday 2 October, not far from the Kleine-Brogel air base, attended by policy-makers, Claude-France Arnould, EDA Executive Director, and the Belgian and Luxembourg Defence Ministers, Pieter De Crem and Jean-Marie Halsdorf, as well as members of the press.
In an area located far from any areas of residence, somewhere in the Belgian province of Limburg, a two-storey building and an off-road vehicle carrying a surface-to-air gun were positioned on a treeless piece of land comprising several hectares. The fictitious personage, Boris Burpah, who has taken refuge in the building, is a high value target as he is the leader of a group of insurgents in that region. The aim of the mission for the special forces is to capture Burpah alive and remove him from the zone of intervention by helicopter. Once the decision to intervene is taken, a commando parachute group is deployed, by parachute, to observe the target and secure the perimeter, without being noticed.
A few minutes before the beginning of the operation, a Belgian F-16 fighter aircraft flies at several dozen metres above the treetops to visualise the situation using its laser sniper pod. It instantly transmits pictures to the mission command and control centre. The position of the off-road vehicle is now perfectly known and a formation of two Italian A-129 attack helicopters neutralises it without themselves being exposed to retaliatory fire.
The ground is secured and a first special forces team, which is in reality just a diversion, is able to rope down from the Italian Chinook CH-47 transport helicopter. The attention of the insurgents is held by this first group and sustained firing conceals the imminent arrival of two German UH-ID helicopters, which transport the intervention group. The entrance door to the building is quickly broken down and Burpah is captured and his men eliminated. During the assault, one of the members of the special forces is wounded in the leg. At that point, the Belgian medical evacuation (A109) helicopter, escorted by a second, enters the scene. Once the injured person has been evacuated, the UH-ID and CH-47 helicopters can land and recover the two groups, carrying away with them the high value target.
The EDA has organised helicopter exercises since 2009, in which 127 helicopters and 227 crews have already taken part. After a first session in France (Gap, March 2009), then in Spain (Azor, June 2010), Italy (It Call, June 2011) and Portugal (Hot Blade, July 2012), it is Belgium's turn to host this training programme that has, in very little time, become the star EDA product, a symbol of the pooling and sharing of capabilities. Each session must have its own specific characteristic and unique component, as EDA services state, and Arnould reiterated in Kleine-Brogel. The aim is to reach a level of complexity which reflects real operations. By complexity, one means the use of a growing number of separate capabilities deployed. Although, in Portugal, the big novelty lay in the integration alongside helicopters of F-16 fighter aircraft, C-130 transport aircraft and an AWACS (airborne warning and control system) from NATO, the particularity of Green Blade 2012 lies in the fact that drones are used in three missions out of the 65 planned between 18 September and 5 October, and that joint exercises are conducted with special forces from three EU member states.
On the sidelines of the demonstration day in Portugal (see EUROPE 10657), Arnould had already spoken of the EDA's wish to integrate drones in helicopter exercises, but underlined the difficulty arising from the heterogeneous nature of regulations in force in member states for military drone flights in peace time. It is therefore in the context of the Belgian exercise Pegasus that this means was used for intelligence missions (to provide photos of areas of operation in the context of mission planning) and in evacuation and extraction missions, as a surveillance tool. Another project evoked in Portugal - that of a permanent unit within the EDA solely dedicated to planning this kind of exercise - has been accomplished. The core planning team is operational and should ensure the management of the helicopter training programme for the next ten years, by developing the lessons learned process and taking those lessons into account in future exercises, explained Wing Commander Andrew Gray, responsible for the programme within EDA.
Green Blade 2012 and Pegasus involve 550 Belgian, Spanish, German and Italian participants and French, Bulgarian, Canadian and Czech observers. The host state also makes some 200 people available for security, logistics and medical support and to play various actor roles in the fictitious operations scenarios. Luxembourg traditionally contributes to funding the EDA exercise. In total, 15 helicopters are deployed with a total flight time of 650 hours, with daytime flight exercises conducted over the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Liège, Limburg and Namur. (JK/transl.jl)