End of Exercise Air Superiority 2012

The LFX of Gripens in Sweden is one of the main tasks in the 2012 training scheme of the Hungarian Defence Forces. Ten pilots participated in the exercise with seven aircraft, together with the ground crew (aviation technicians, logisticians and medical staff). They flew missions which they could not accomplish under the circumstances at home in Hungary.

Two of the Gripens participating in Exercise “Air Superiority 2012" returned to their home station, the Kecskemét Air Base, Hungary on Friday, March 23.

Brig.-Gen. Nándor Kilián, the commander of the HDF 59th ‘Szentgyörgyi Dezső’ Air Base told us that the pilots had conducted the air-to-air live fire exercise flying over an uninhabited, forested taiga-like area about half the size of Hungary. They launched the missiles to hit infrared flare targets towed by a drone, while they fired the autocannon at a target drogue during the gunnery practice. Since the Gripens’ entering service, the last time Hungarian pilots went on such an LFX with armed missiles was in 2008, while the last air-to-air gunnery took place in the 1960s.

What is more, the Hungarian pilots had opportunity to practice low-level flying at high airspeeds, as they flew to the test range at a speed of 1000 km/h and altitude of 30 meters. The SOPs currently in force do not allow them to fly at such a low altitude in Hungary.

On Friday in the early afternoon hours, a two-seater aircraft landed on the tarmac of Kecskemét, piloted by Lt.-Col. Csaba Ugrik, the Air Operations Chief of the Base, with Base Commander Brig.-Gen. Nándor Kilián sitting on the rear seat. The second aircraft to land was flown by Lt.-Col. István Asztalos, the commander of the Puma Squadron.

The rest of the Gripens that flew to the Vidsel Test Range do not return home for the time being, because the Hungarian fighter pilots join their Swedish, Czech and South African colleagues to conduct Exercise “Lion Effort 2012 which is taking place in Sweden as well.

Photos by the author

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