NASAMS
02_88.qxd
17-09-04
11:05
Side 36
NASAMS IN EL The ground-based air and missile defence (AMD) capability offered by Luftforsvaret’s NASAMS community is an extremely useful tool for 21st-Century crisis response operations. That became clear during the high-profile German Air Force live flying exercise ELITE 2004, held
TEKST AND PHOTO:
Joris Janssen Lok International Editor, Jane´s International Defense Review
A
And multi-national it was. Literally dozens of surface-to-air missile fire units and associated command and control and sensor systems from nine nations were concentrated within the
last May south of Stuttgart. There, Norway’s new groundbased air defence (GBAD) high-readiness force (HRF), which became operational on 1 August, convincingly proved its ability to deploy overseas and to integrate in a multi-national air-defence environment.
restricted Heuberg area, occupying not more than 50-odd km of hills and valleys. Systems deployed in addition to NASAMS included Crotale NG (France), Patriot (Germany, the Netherlands), Hawk (Germany), Roland (Germany, Slovenia), Skyguard/RAC3D (Austria), RBS 90/Giraffe (Sweden), Rapier FSC (UK), very short range systems such as Igla (Slovenia) and Stinger (Germany, the Netherlands) and
Russian-built SA-6 and SA-8 surfaceto-air missile systems (provided by Germany). This extraordinarily-diverse GBAD cluster was challenged twice-daily by combined air operations (COMAO) strike packages including British, German and Italian Tornados; Greek, Turkish and US F-16s; French Mirages; Swiss F/A-18 Hornets and Swedish Viggens that
Multi-national air-defence environment: Dozens of surface-to-air missile fire units and associated command and control and sensor systems from nine nations were concentrated within the restricted Heuberg area.
36 LUFTLED
nr. 3 september 2004
