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Showing posts with label Libya. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Libya. Show all posts

2011-11-02

Plucky Little Belgium

Small nations like Belgium are earning praise for their participation in NATO's Operation Unified Protector, which officially ends just before the witching hour on Halloween today at 23:59 CET. Since the operation began exactly seven months ago, NATO aircraft flew over 26,000 sorties, more than 9,600 of which were strike sorties.
The last four of six Belgian air force F-16s which participated in the operation returned to their home base of Florennes today. They clocked up 2,560 hours during 614 sorties, dropping 472 laser-guided bombs which hit 96-97 percent of their targets, according to Belgian Defense Minister Pieter De Crem, reportedly without causing any collateral damage.
According to Belgian media reports, Belgian F-16s came close to attacking Muammar Gaddafi's convoy on 20 October as they were patrolling the area half an hour before it was attacked by a French air force Mirage 2000D and a US Predator unmanned aerial vehicle.
A Financial Times blog posted on De Crem's website includes praise for Belgium for taking on dangerous missions (although it starts with a quote about the battle of Waterloo rather than the World War I quote about "plucky little Belgium), pointing out that 40 percent of missions over Libya were conducted by smaller NATO members and Gulf state air forces.


Source: Aviation Week

2011-11-01

Belgian Defence: Persmededeling: Terugkeer laatste F 16's uit Libië/ Communiqué de presse: Derniers F16 de retour de la Libye

F-16AM FA-57 taking off from Araxos airbase (Greece) on Saturday October 29th, 2011 (Photo Gérard Gaudin)

Terugkeer laatste F16’s uit Libië
De laatste vier Belgische F-16 toestellen,  die ingezet waren in de operatie "Unified Protector" boven Libië , zijn deze middag vanop hun basis inARAXOS- Griekenland teruggekeerd naar hun thuisbasis in Florennes.Officieel neemt de NAVO – opdracht,  waaraan België deelnam met zes F-16 toestellen en een mijnenjager, vandaag een einde om 23u59.

Zaterdag al keerden de eerste twee F-16 toestellen terug. De mijnenjager M921 "Lobelia" wordt eind november terug verwacht in Zeebrugge.

Derniers F16 de retour de la Libye
Les quatre F-16 belges qui étaient encore présents sur la base d'Araxos (Grèce) dans le cadre de l'Operation "Unified Protector" ont regagné la base de Florennes, ce lundi 31 Octobre vers midi.
C'est ce soir à 23.59 Hr que prend officiellement fin cette opération OTAN, à laquelle la Défense belge participait avec six F-16 et un chasseur de mines.

Les quatre appareils belges avaient été précédés samedi dernier par deux premiers F-16; quant au navire M921 Lobelia, il est attendu à Zeebrugge fin novembre.

Source: Belgian Defence