Air Defender 2023

[Kurnass]

For the early birds, Air Defender 23 will take place in Germany, likely from 12-24th of June, but these have to be confirmed. Participants shamelessly copied from the Scramble forum:

Operations at Wunstorf will comprise:

2 KC-46
8 ANG C-130
1 RomAF C-27J
1 LitAF C-27J
plus flying of 4 A400M of LTG 62

Per mission 12-14 aircraft will take off from here.

Jagel will get:

16 ANG F-16C (perhaps two different units)
12 ANG A-10
5 HuAF JAS39
plus flying of 6-8 TLwG 51 Tornados

Hohn is planned for:

32 ANG F-15C (4-5 different units)

Lechfeld will presumably now take 12 ANG A-10.

Neuburg and Laage will also take part with their based wings. Geilenkirchen will also participate.

More info might be added when confirmed.

[Apache123]

Now that would be worth a trip

[HappyCobra]

One to keep an eye on for those A-10s in particular.

[Kurnass]

One to keep an eye on for those A-10s in particular.

The disadvantage of going for the A-10’s is that Lechfeld and Jagel, where they will be deployed, are 900 kilometers apart. Or about 560 miles.

[KevinJ]

It does sound great but I am sceptical that many ANG fighters will deploy, I think the reality will be far less. It just seems mad they'd send 32 ANG F-15s across, they've not deployed to Europe like that since the old "Crested Cap" days when they had twice as many units and fighters!

[Mike@Heathrow]

It does sound great but I am sceptical that many ANG fighters will deploy, I think the reality will be far less. It just seems mad they'd send 32 ANG F-15s across, they've not deployed to Europe like that since the old "Crested Cap" days when they had twice as many units and fighters!

I think that you may have missed the connection between "Crested Cap", "Cold War days" and an event going on in Europe to this day. It appears that someone to the East of Ukraine may have thought those earlier events would stay in the past. I hope they don't and I say that not as an enthusiast.

[Kurnass]

It does sound great but I am sceptical that many ANG fighters will deploy, I think the reality will be far less. It just seems mad they'd send 32 ANG F-15s across, they've not deployed to Europe like that since the old "Crested Cap" days when they had twice as many units and fighters!

This exercise is already in the planning since 2021. The scenario they wanted to play was a Russian attack on Europe, and the ANG comes to the rescue. After February 2022, this scenario became even more relevant. And these numbers came from press briefings.

[KevinJ]

It does sound great but I am sceptical that many ANG fighters will deploy, I think the reality will be far less. It just seems mad they'd send 32 ANG F-15s across, they've not deployed to Europe like that since the old "Crested Cap" days when they had twice as many units and fighters!

I think that you may have missed the connection between "Crested Cap", "Cold War days" and an event going on in Europe to this day. It appears that someone to the East of Ukraine may have thought those earlier events would stay in the past. I hope they don't and I say that not as an enthusiast.

No I haven't missed the connection, but as I pointed out there were far more aircraft and units in the USAF and ANG back then. I'm still very sceptical as this would be close the Red Flag levels of launches but without anything like the same airspace available as in Nevada. It's just common sense to me. More than happy to be proved wrong.

[KevinJ]

It does sound great but I am sceptical that many ANG fighters will deploy, I think the reality will be far less. It just seems mad they'd send 32 ANG F-15s across, they've not deployed to Europe like that since the old "Crested Cap" days when they had twice as many units and fighters!

This exercise is already in the planning since 2021. The scenario they wanted to play was a Russian attack on Europe, and the ANG comes to the rescue. After February 2022, this scenario became even more relevant. And these numbers came from press briefings.

Can you copy/paste or link to the press briefings please?

[Mike@Heathrow]

Good to see your responses, Kevin & Kurnass. Lets hope the exercise works out well so I'll just watch this link for hard information nearer the dates.

[Kurnass]

I don’t have a link. Most info comes from local newspapers around the airbases that are involved in the exercise. Also the Luftwaffe posted some messages about this exercise on their Socials. If I see new articles, I will post them here.

[KevinJ]

I don’t have a link. Most info comes from local newspapers around the airbases that are involved in the exercise. Also the Luftwaffe posted some messages about this exercise on their Socials. If I see new articles, I will post them here.

Ok, no worries. Iot's of time between now and June for any details.

[STN RAMP RAT]

I may be being simple but there is exercise "Air Defender 2023" https://www.defensenews.com/digital-sho ... nd-europe/ and there is exercise "Defender Europe 2023" https://europeanwesternbalkans.com/2023 ... -exercise/

are these exercises taking place simultaneously and are they inter-connected? the premiss of the Defender Europe exercise suggests the possibility of a large airborne troop deployment from the US which is likely to generate a large number of C17's.

[Kurnass]

Defender Europe is an annual Army exercise, usually held in different areas each year.
Air Defender 23 is the first of its kind (hopefully not the last) and as far as I know, there’s no connection between them.

[sschofield]

It looks like it's following a similar pattern to the old "Reforger/Able Archer/Autumn Forge deployments, interconnected deployments where large numbers of aircraft and troops were deployed to the front line. Clearly it's taken on a renewed importance given the current Ukranian events, and it's got a fair whiff of sabre-rattling by the US too. Let's hope the Russians don't take the stance they took with the 1983 "Able Archer" exercise, when it very nearly all went very wrong indeed! (Worth a Google if you don't know the story!)

[AK01]

For the record, planning of Air Defender 23 started long before the Ukrainian situation started, so it's not a reaction on that. See for instance a 2021 message on https://twitter.com/Team_Luftwaffe/stat ... 4617240580

[Kurnass]

New update from the German MoD:
10.000 personnel involved
18 countries
210 aircraft including 100 US ANG from 35 different states.
Airbases involved in Germany: Hohn, Jagel, Laage, Wunstorf, Spangdahlem, Lechfeld
Also Volkel (Netherlands) and Caslav (CZ) involved

https://www.bundeswehr.de/de/organisati ... ni-5581138

[AV8BHARRIER]

Just found a snippet online which states the 127WG will be the lead unit for the exercise, so Michigan A-10s will likely be deployed. Presumably supported by their KC135's.

[sjoerd]

Also heared that DC ANG F-16's and MD ANG A-10's being deployed to Jagel. Spang will receive VT ANG F-35's and Geilenkirchen is likely to receive USAF E-3's as well.

[Kurnass]

https://www.hlb-info.de/sites/default/f ... QVNe9kqXjM

Some more info about the exercise, and which aircraft to expect at the participating air bases