Capt. Henrik Kanstrup angles his Mid-Life Updated F-16A over the Baltic Sea for a better shot at two approaching jets. Although his advanced interrogator clearly identifies the approaching aircraft as friendlies, Kanstrup slews the locking cue on his color multifunction cockpit display over the target symbology and locks the approaching jets on his APG-66(V)2 radar. The fire control computer feeds the radar data to the AIM-120 AMRAAM and simulates a launch. A few seconds later, another fictitious AMRAAM leaves the launch rail. The countdown begins. Fifteen miles out, the count reaches zero and crosses flash over both target symbols. The AMRAAMs have scored. Seconds later, the approaching aircraft, two more Danish MLU F 16As, flash by.
The Royal Danish Air Force, Kongelige Danske Flyvevåben, signed on to the F-16 early in the NATO history of the aircraft. With an F-16 presence in Denmark, NATO increased its military might significantly in the Baltic Sea. Had conflict erupted during the Cold War years, Danish F-16s were positioned to thwart a massive Soviet fleet from gaining access to the North Sea. In those early years, Denmark operated F-16 Blocks 1 and 5. Blocks 10 and 15 followed later. Since then, Danish F-16s have passed through various modification programs, but none so extensive as the Mid-Life Update. With the MLU, the RDAF takes a major step in capability.
Denmark embarked on the MLU program with its European partners—Belgium, Norway, and the Netherlands. With government funding for sixty-nine MLU kits, RDAF is able to modernize its entire F-16 fleet. And now, after extensive test and evaluation trials, RDAF is operating its first MLU squadron, Esk 726 at Aalborg Air Station in northern Denmark. Although Esk 726 is first to complete the update, it was the last Danish squadron to convert to the F-16.
The F-16 entered RDAF inventory in January 1980 as a replacement to the North American F-100 Super Sabres operated by Esk 727 and Esk 730 at Skrydstrup Air Station in southern Denmark. In 1986, the RDAF replaced the aging Lockheed F-104 Starfighter interceptors operated by Esk 723 and 726 at Aalborg Air Station. The Danish government will shortly close Esk 723 and combine those F-16s into Esk 726, increasing the Esk 726 inventory to twenty MLU F-16As and four F-16Bs and leaving it the only flying unit at Aalborg.
Denmark’s first MLU squadron regained operational status in March 2000 after a year of pilot training. “We began pilot conversion training with a group of six experienced F-16 pilots in February 1999,” Kanstrup explains. Commander of Esk 726, Kanstrup, was part of the first group of MLU pilots. “We formed the nucleus of the instruction efforts to get all our pilots converted to the MLU. We started with air-to-air training since the MLU offers the most dramatic changes in this role. Once a pilot becomes proficient in a four-ship combat air patrol mission, we begin air-to-ground training.”
The emphasis on the air-to-ground role has shifted from low-level to medium-level, which is frequently trained at the nearby Tranum range. Keeping proficient in both roles is becoming an arduous task; Danish F-16 pilots now fly 165 to 180 hours per year. “It’s getting a bit hard to fit everything into these flying hours,” notes Kanstrup, “especially with the increased capability of the MLU.” Esk 726 also performs tactical reconnaissance missions, which ups the training challenge.
Aalborg assumed the reconnaissance role in 1994 after RDAF decommissioned the fleet of Saab Drakens, including S 35XD photo reconnaissance Drakens operated by Esk 729 at Karup Air Station. For the reconnaissance role, the Esk 726 F-16s carry the Red Baron photo pod, which carries four Vinten F95 cameras fitted with three-inch and eleven-inch lenses for vertical and oblique photography. The Red Baron pod also carries an infrared line scanner, a passive sensor system produced by Texas Instruments.
Esk 726 performs a vital intelligence-gathering role for the RDAF, mainly to monitor non-NATO shipping over the Baltic Sea. For this mission, Esk 726 maintains one recce F-16 and two air defense F-16s on mission alert. The pods are also being tested during air-to-air encounters with Russian aircraft from the Kaliningrad area. Although these encounters are fully amicable these days, they underscore the still intelligence-rich environment of the Baltic.
The Red Baron is primarily used for low-level daytime operations. This role will change, however, when the RDAF takes delivery of the new Modular Reconnaissance Pod. The new recce pod, from Terma Industries Grenå, has a much wider operational envelope and carries an array of electro-optical sensor systems as well as a more sophisticated infrared line scanner and a high-speed solid state recorder. A data link system may be added to this new pod to make it near-realtime reconnaissance possible. A dedicated photo section at the squadron interprets the imagery and maintains the system. All pilots at the squadron are qualified in the tactical reconnaissance role.
MLU modifications are being performed at the main RDAF depot at Aalborg, where five maintenance docks and two conversion docks are dedicated to the work. Aalborg is widely experienced with F-16 maintenance and modifications, having performed all main inspections on the jets and modifications as far back as Pacer Loft I for Blocks 1 and 5 F-16s being upgraded to Block 10 standards. More recently, the depot has been involved with Falcon UP, a major structural upgrade, and Blue Max, a Danish program to reduce the detectability of the RDAF F-16s. The depot at Aalborg has also modified the RDAF jets to accommodate a pylon integrated dispenser system from Per Udsen and to install an electronic warfare management system, a digital system produced in Denmark by Terma that controls chaff, flare, and all other countermeasures. All inspections are being combined in the MLU modification work so that the entire dock capacity at Aalborg is made available to the MLU work.
Col. Karsten Schulz, the Aalborg Air Station commander, is very pleased with the progress of the aircraft modifications. “The fact that we are able to make the aircraft work, with all those thousands of parts that make up the MLU, is something that continues to impress me,” Schulz says. “At first, the modification cycle lasted about nine months. But we have since shaved a few months off that.”
The goal for 2000 is to modify twenty-nine jets by the end of the year, with another twelve modified by August 2001. “The modifications have been going so well that pilot conversion is now becoming the critical pacing factor,” Schulz continues. A similar praise befalls the performance of the MLU.
“It’s such a great aircraft to operate,” Capt. Kanstrup notes. “Especially the radar, which provides a real improvement in capability. The radar, combined with the interrogator and AMRAAM, gives us the long reach we have always wanted in air-to-air.”
“The MLU simply means more bang for the buck,” notes Col. Schulz, an F-16 pilot with more than 2,300 flying hours. “We carry six bombs, and we can take out six targets.”
The Danish MLUs made their operational debut in May 1999 in Operation Allied Force when three F-16s from Esk 726 were sent to support the RDAF detachment at Grazzanise Air Base, an Italian F-104 base near Naples, Italy. Only weeks after completing the first conversion course, these upgraded F-16s were pressed into action to augment the jets from the Esk 730 at Skrydstrup.
“When Allied Force started,” recalls Kanstrup, “we were at Decimomannu in Sardinia as part of our MLU conversion. Shortly after returning to Aalborg, we found ourselves on our way to Italy once again.” With only an initial proficiency on the new jets and with the radar still running on test software tapes, the RDAF provided the aircraft to Allied Force as regular F-16As tasked with missions that did not require the capabilities of the MLU. Once the operation was halted, the MLUs were returned to the conversion program in Aalborg.
With the Aalborg crews completely converted to the MLU, the focus shifted to converting the first four Skrydstrup F-16 pilots from Esk 730. When these pilots complete training in August 2000, they will stay at Aalborg for the remainder of the year to gain experience on the MLU. In the meantime, five F-16 instructor pilots from Esk 727 will be trained on the MLU at Aalborg as well. Esk 727 is the RDAF F-16 operational conversion unit.
Maj. Gert Brødsgaard, air station chief of operations, details further MLU planning for Skrydstrup: “Our first nine MLU pilots will return in January 2001, bringing the first MLU aircraft with them,” he says. “This group of pilots from Esk 730 and Esk 727 will build both squadrons simultaneously; however, Esk 727 will comprise the heart of the conversion initially because it is the operational conversion unit.” The conversion at Skrydstrup should be completed in early 2002, with all MLU aircraft expected in place a few months later. “By mid-2002, we expect to have forty MLU jets, twenty for each squadron,” adds Brødsgaard.
Evidence of its MLU-boosted capability came when Esk 730 was called to participate in NATO’s Immediate Reaction Forces with twelve aircraft for both offensive and defensive operations as well as four jets for tactical reconnaissance operations. In this capacity, Esk 730 functioned as the very heart of the RDAF F-16 detachment at Grazzanise. With prior deployment to Italy several times before in 1997 and 1998, the RDAF was called upon in fall 1998 to prepare for the Balkan operation.
“The official NATO request of six F-16s for offensive and defensive operations came in October 1998,” says Col. Arne Pedersen, air station commander at Skrydstrup. Grazzanise Air Base was allocated to the RDAF. A Norwegian F-16 detachment joined the RDAF at the base in January 1999. “We redeployed between November and February,” Pedersen adds, “but, by the time the operation began, we had eight aircraft and one spare committed to Allied Force. Our participation in the operation was a first for us. We learned a great deal from it, particularly about logistics.”
Phase inspections during the deployment occurred at increasingly shorter intervals. “Our maintenance crews were challenged to keep up with the pace of the operation,” Pedersen explains. Shortly after arriving at Grazzanise, the RDAF F-16s got involved in the offensive operations as well, using Mk-82 iron bombs.
In the wake of Allied Force, the RDAF has maintained only two aircraft at Grazzanise. In July 2000, the Danish F-16s returned to Aalborg where they can be redeployed on a few days notice. These jets, more frequently involving MLU F-16s, are more focused on offensive operations in which they carry GBU-12 laser-guided bombs. The RDAF has yet to take delivery of the first AN/AAQ-14 Sharpshooter laser designator pods, so buddy lasing still comes from other NATO aircraft. Once the RDAF F-16s get the Sharpshooter, they can drop precision-guided munitions autonomously. This and all the other advances in capability made possible by the Mid-Life Update keep the RDAF at the forefront of NATO air power.
Eric Stijger is an aviation journalist and photographer based in the Netherlands.