A crowd of maintainers, staff, wives, and husbands stand in anticipation on the ramp at Aalborg AB in Denmark. They are waiting for the planes and crew of 721 Squadron, the only transport unit of the Royal Danish Air Force, to arrive at their new home at this base in northern Jutland. The crowd cheers and waves as two Challenger 601 patrol/executive transport aircraft, three T-17 trainers, and two C-130Hs make low passes over the runway. Soon after, the day's main attraction arrives—Denmark's first C-130J Super Hercules. The Super Hercules crew is escorted by one of its new neighbors, a pilot flying an Aalborg-based F-16 from 726 Squadron. The C-130J landing marks the completion of 721's relocation to Aalborg from Værløse AB, near Copenhagen. The landing also marks a new era for the RDAF, which begins operating the Super Hercules this year.
The day after the arrival, a team of technicians from Air Materiel Command, the acquisition arm of the Danish Air Force; Terma, a Danish electronics firm; and avionics specialists from the base start installing RDAF-specific countermeasures on the aircraft. They begin their work early because they have a tight schedule to keep. 721 Squadron, the first C-130J operator in Scandinavia, is scheduled to be operational with its three new C130Js in eight months.
"We will officially be in training until October 2004," notes Capt. Karsten Jensen, the director of operations for 721 Squadron. "I have told our air force bosses not to have too high expectations from us for six months. However, I am sure we will be tasked left, right, and center once they see what we can do with this aircraft."
The White Bear Goes
The RDAF made the decision to close Værløse AB in 2000 for force consolidation. The base had been 721 Squadron's home for fifty-one years. "I was asked to make a drawing for a new hangar at Aalborg four years ago," says Maj. Poul Olesen, the squadron's chief of maintenance. "I am certainly not an architect, but I came up with four designs. I knew what we needed. Now, in early March 2004, we are occupying one of those designs. We still need some alarms and locks on some of the doors, but those are minor fixes. We have moved, and we are ready to go."
A new two-bay hangar at Aalborg, completed last December, has underfloor electrical and hydraulic connections. The electrical power generator is outside to reduce noise in the work area. The C-130J crew chiefs have an office on one end of the building and the crew chiefs for the Challenger aircraft are at the other end. The large building is tied to an existing hangar. The new maintenance complex was finished this spring.
"We combined the avionics shops and sheet metal shops for the C-130Js and the F16s in the hangar," notes Olesen. "The two powerplant shops are integrated in a building just outside. Putting like jobs together just makes sense. Of course, each aircraft requires some specialized skills, but the basic tasks are the same."
The military shares a runway with Aalborg's commercial airfield and has been the home of one of the RDAF's three F-16 squadrons for more than two decades. The commercial air traffic and the modern maintenance complex appear out of place at a military base with hardened shelters, hardstands, and dispersed buildings. Aalborg AB is a product of the Cold War—or what the Danes call the "Russian time."
The new home for 721 Squadron's aircrews can be found about a mile from the new maintenance hangar. The building is the former headquarters for 723 Squadron, whose pilots had once flown Lockheed F-104s. It has since been refurbished and enlarged for its new occupants. Areas have been set aside for T-17 flight operations, search and rescue, both traditional and computerized mission planning, mission planning support, duty operations, and Challenger flight operations. Temporary offices have been built for Lockheed Martin flight crews who will help train the Danish crews. The squadron commander and director of operations have separate offices as well.
721 Squadron, established in 1926 as a Naval flying unit, is Denmark's oldest flying unit and is actually twenty-eight years older than the Royal Danish Air Force itself. To honor that heritage, the squadron has hung a propeller from a World War I era Hansa Brandenburg torpedo bomber on the wall of the crew briefing room with an outline of the aircraft painted behind it. The maintenance break room has its own historical artifacts. "We brought the mounted heads from a reindeer and a white bear from Værløse," says Olesen. "Nobody remembers how we acquired them, but everybody thought it was important that they make the move with us."
New Base, New Aircraft
The transition from a cosmopolitan world capital to a much smaller, industrial city near the North Sea has proven to be a challenge to the squadron. "Many of the wives were making more money in the private sector in Copenhagen than their husbands were in the military," notes Jensen. "But we have a lot of dedicated, motivated people who really love their jobs. And, if you want to fly Hercs in the Danish Air Force, Aalborg is now the only place to be."
The squadron also needed to retain flight engineers and navigators to keep its C-130H models flying until the fall while the C-130Js come on line. "Since the J model requires fewer crewmembers, we offered to convert the flight engineers into loadmasters," notes Jensen. "Only one said no, but he agreed to live here temporarily and get out of the service when the H models go away.
"We had eight navigators and most are getting promoted out of the squadron to staff jobs," Jensen adds. "The others will become observers on the Challengers for missions, such as fishery protection, and for sovereignty flights. Some of the navigators will be used in planning groups when we operate the C-130J abroad. We have a lot of experience we need to keep."
"We will phase the J into service and the H out of service," says Olesen. "We now have one small team that is dedicated to the C-130J. Gradually, the maintainers will transition to the J in groups and we will end up with one small team dedicated to the H model. We will have only a few people to train on the new aircraft early next year. It won't be difficult to support both the C-130H and the C-130J."
The unit has certainly put its three 1975-vintage C-130Hs to work. In addition to its normal airlift, search and rescue, and long-range patrol missions, 721 Squadron began conducting extensive operations outside of Denmark in the early 1980s. They made relief flights into Nigeria, Sudan, Turkey, and Albania after various natural and man-made disasters. On Christmas Day 2001, crews flew their first mission in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Based in Kyrgyzstan, the unit's seven aircrews—the standard complement—conducted seventy-eight missions totaling nearly 450 hours flying into Afghanistan. Last year, the squadron flew its first missions into Iraq.
Because they found they were frequently taking their C-130Hs into harm's way, the Danish Air Force installed a sophisticated electronic countermeasures suite in the aircraft in the early 1990s. That suite is also a prominent feature in the C-130Js. The Group A modifications—basic survivability equipment such as chaff and flares—were installed on the three new aircraft at the factory in Marietta, Georgia. The more technologically advanced, Danish-specific Group B modifications were installed at Aalborg after the three new aircraft were delivered.
The Danish aircraft, the long-fuselage version of the C-130J, feature a strengthened cargo ramp and improved airdrop system, to allow crews to make airdrops at 250 knots, helping them avoid antiaircraft fire in hostile areas. The Enhanced Cargo Handling System allows for rapidly converting the aircraft from hauling rolling stock to palletized cargo. Denmark also holds an option to buy a fourth C-130J.
Once the unit has fully converted to the new Super Hercules, the C-130Hs will be sold to another country. "We had one prospective customer come in a few months ago. They knew we had been flying our aircraft hard, but they were surprised what good shape they are in," Olesen notes, somewhat proudly.
Changes In Operations
The coming of the C-130J will lead to some changes in how the RDAF operates its Hercs. In Kyrgyzstan, the small size of the Danish fleet led to an innovative agreement in which the unit worked closely with C-130H units from the Netherlands and Norway. Each country brought a small supply of spare parts to form a parts pool. Denmark also brought aircraft generation equipment such as work stands and generators. "We had excellent cooperation with the Norwegians and the Dutch," notes Olesen. "For future actions, we will try to develop a similar relationship with the Royal Air Force and the Italians, as they are the only other nearby C-130J operators."
Anytime the Danish Hercs are off base for more than a day, a crew chief is normally deployed with them. "With the J, we expect we will be deploying more often and longer," Olesen adds. "On very long deployments, we will send avionics technicians, two crew chiefs, and limited spare parts. We will need to be a little more self-sufficient."
"We depend on local loading teams when we deploy," Jensen notes. "We usually carry two loadmasters and they can handle the ramp forward. We need help getting the load to the ramp. Because we will be away from home station more, headquarters is looking into the feasibility of establishing an aerial port squadron that will go with us to a forward base."
One RDAF-specific mission is resupply of scientific stations and fishing outposts in Greenland, a Danish protectorate. While the squadron has no need to perform heavy equipment drops for these resupply flights, container delivery system drops are critical. The integral container delivery system rails in the C-130J will prove especially useful in this mission. In addition to dropping vital supplies such as food and fuel, 721 Squadron crews perform a highly unusual airdrop task—dropping mail, gifts, and wrapped Christmas trees once a year to some of the remote stations on the Greenland ice cap.
"We make low-level flights in training, but not so much operationally," observes Jensen. "In the actual threat environment we are seeing, we fly high, get where we are going, and make a tactical approach. We don't do night-vision goggle operations in the C-130H, but we hope to do them with the C-130J. The addition of NVG ops is being staffed at Air Materiel Command, and we could see that in the short term. Even to go to Greenland in bad weather, an NVG capability will be very beneficial.
"I am positive that our taskings will increase," says Jensen. "Denmark doesn't need a real strategic airlift capability, but the C-130J will move us into that area without losing a tactical capability. Now when we go someplace, we won't have to sit in the back as long because we'll get there a lot quicker."
Jeff Rhodes is the associate editor of Code One.
