Extraordinary Live Fire Exercise with Gripens

The HDF Gripens and the almost 60 assigned personnel relocated on June 7 to the airport of the European Union’s largest firing range, to Vidsel, located about 100 kilometres away from the Arctic Circle. On Friday the comprehensive planning and the pre-flight inspection of the aircraft were carried out, and then on June 11 the live execution started. On the first two days air-to-air live gunnery and missile firing were conducted.

In the course of the live gunnery the pilots fired at a drogue towed by Learjet 35 type airplane operated by Saab Special Aviation Operations. There is a special acoustic sensor built in it, which allows – within a detection range of ten meters – the establishment of the distance and direction of the passage of the 27 mm ammunition, fired from the Gripen Mauser cannons. The pilots, turning at the drogue, fired first from the right, then from the left, in turns, with short rounds – each containing 10 bullets -, paying particular attention that the line of the fire-opening should deviate by at least 10 grades from the directional angle of the towing plane, so that they won’t, even accidentally, endanger the towing plane and her aircrew.

The air-to-air missile firing was conducted with AIM-9L type Sidewinder missiles. On Monday the airmen assigned to the mission fired altogether four missiles suspended on the launching equipment of the left external wingtip. This time the targets were the infrared flares towed by the drones launched from a closed area near the airport. The drone circled over a designated area, to where the Gripens were guided one after the other, which following a left turn started their missiles at an altitude of 1200 meters. After landing the technical staff presented a piece of the Sidewinder missile remaining on the plane, the cable piece, i.e. the “tail of the rattlesnake" to the fighter pilot, who accomplished the mission.

At the end of each day – as already usual in the home environment -, an after-action review and an evaluation was held. Considering the events of the first two days, everything was carried out perfectly, according to the preliminary plan: both the Swedish partner and Brigadier General Csaba Ugrik, the Commander of the relocated contingent, assessed the performance of the missions as “good", and expressed their appreciation for the professional work of the air and the technical personnel, and congratulated in particular to the young pilots, who executed live firing for the first time.