Fliegerstaffel 24
The Fliegerstaffel 24 is a former independent Fliegerstaffel, which now flies as part of the Zielflugstaffel 12 EKF missions. She is a professional militia pilot of the Swiss Air Force and belongs to the airfield command 7. Her home base is the Emmen military airfield . The Squadron 24 carries as emblem an eagle against a light blue background, holding in his right claw a lightning (lightning symbolizing the EKF), in the background is the red-orange number 24 and the coat of arms is a red-orange area with black writing "flying squadron ".
history
The Fliegerstaffel 24 was integrated into the destination flight squadron 12 in 1994, but is operationally so different that it can still be viewed as a separate squadron. The Fliegerstaffel 24 was originally founded in the Second World War , but without becoming active: The Swiss Air Force had 21 Fliegerstaffel and the Fliegerstaffel 24 was supposed to make the Swiss Air Force appear bigger - the Fliegerstaffel 22 and 23 never existed.
By 1974 the dual controls had been removed from two Vampire Trainers (J-1205, J-1203) and the aircraft had been converted with an operator seat for EKF purposes. In 1977 it was decided to also use the Hunter Trainer for electronic warfare (EKF) and to form the crews in Fliegerstaffel 24. An on-board operator was also required in the Hunter trainers to operate the EKF equipment. Hunter trainers were from 1977 to 1994 for the Fliegerstaffel 24 in use, the aircraft were also used by other squadrons for conventional pilot training. This is also the case with the F-5F and PC-9 aircraft of Fliegerstaffel 24. The home of Fliegerstaffel 24 was Sion Airport from 1979 to 1980 , then the Emmen and Payerne military airfields until 1994 . From 1994 it is the Emmen military airfield. In 1994 the Fliegerstaffel 24 was integrated into the Zielflugstaffel 12 as part of the reclassification of the Army 95 . In 1987 the Fliegerstaffel 24 received a total of 12 Pilatus PC-9s together with the Zielflugstaffel 12, today 8 PC-9s are still in use. From 1987 to 2006, Fliegerstaffel 24 was also able to use one of the Luftwaffe's two Learjet 35s for EKF tasks. In 1994 the Hunter Trainers were retired and the Fliegerstaffel 24 used some (J-3201, J-3210, J-3211 and J-3212) of the 12 F-5F Tigers instead. The pilots of Fliegerstaffel 24 are former militia pilots of front squadrons 6, 8 and 19, who have reached the age limit on the combat aircraft. The on-board operators of the Vista 5 system are professional air-force operators and belong to the professional aviation corps . The main task is to disrupt the radar systems of combat aircraft ( F / A-18 and F-5) for training purposes, to disrupt the radar systems of the air defense ( Skyguard , RAPIER and STINGER Alert) as well as the air surveillance radars TAFLIR and Florako . The Fliegerstaffel 24 shares the PC-9 with the Zielflugstaffel 12, which uses it as a target tug. The future of the target flight squadron 12 is uncertain. This is because, on the one hand, the F-5F is expected to be retired in 2018, and it was actually planned to retire the PC-9 at the end of 2016. However, four PC-9 machines are expected to continue flying until 2025. Two of these machines (C-907 and C-908) are still intended as target tugs and the other two (C-911 and C-912) as radar jammers. The Ericsson "Vista-5" (electronic jammer as an additional container) will also have reached the end of its life by 2018. A replacement for the Vista-5 is not planned, as modern combat aircraft have an integrated jammer with comparable performance that no longer requires an on-board operator.
Planes
supporting documents
- Hermann Keist FlSt24
- Target flight relay 12 on the official VBS homepage ( Memento from March 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
- Christophe Donnet: Hunter fascination. Schück, Adliswil 1995, ISBN 3-9520906-0-3
Individual evidence
- ↑ First flight with the new Vampire Trainer Simulator in Dübendorf ( Memento from May 5, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), Skynews, September 2008
- ↑ Skynews No April 4, 2016
