Gripens on Air Gunnery

Two Gripens carried out air-to-ground gunnery in the area of the Hajmáskér range on Thursday, March 1, as part of practicing CAS for the land forces. Capt. Zoltán Szabó, the acting weapons engineer directing the armament of the fighters at Kecskemét Air Base told us that this time they were tasked with destroying tanks.

The Gripens executed the task with Mauser BK 27mm revolver cannons firing “Pele" anti-armor rounds. This weapon is perfectly suitable for destroying air-to-air and air-to-ground targets from distances of 1-3 kilometers. It has excellent firing accuracy, so based on the pilots’ experience it qualifies as a precision weapon. The built-in and underslung video cameras help the umpires in assessing the effectiveness of the air gunnery.

The fighter pilots carry out two or three air gunneries per year, which form an integral part of their training program. This time the low-level clouds above the range hindered the task execution. Maj. Tibor Molnár, the commander of the two-plane formation told us that they managed to hit the targets using JTAC guidance and starting the maneuvers from an altitude of 3000 meters.

Brig.-Gen. Nándor Kilián evaluated the task execution as “satisfactory" immediately after the Gripens landed. The commander of the HDF 59th Szentgyörgyi Dezső Air Base spoke highly of the tactical air control party’s excellent performance.

Next time the Gripens of Kecskemét will carry out air gunnery at Exercise Lion Effort 2012 in Sweden at the end of March.

(Our photos were taken during the pre-exercise training and before takeoff at the Kecskemét Air Base.)

Photos by the author

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