Royal Danish Air Force

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Danish Air Force Roundel

The Royal Danish Air Force is the air force of Denmark, it is an expeditionary Air Force, with capability organised to support both international operations and homeland security.

1 History
2 Organisation
3 Operations
4 Equipment
5 Ranks
6 References
7 See also

[edit] History

Danish Air Force's F-16 MLU at the Radom Air Show in 2005.

The Danish armed forces received 38 Supermarine Spitfire H. F. Mk. IXE ^[1] and 3 P.R.Mk. XI in 1947-48 ^[2] which were operated by units of The Danish Army Air Corps and The Danish Navy Flying Service. Four additional airframes were acquired for ground instruction.

The two services were merged in 1950 to form the Royal Danish Air Force (Flyvevåbnet) ^[2] and the Spitfires continued in service until 1956 when the last serviceable examples were retired and all but two scrapped.

One survived for a number of years in a children's playground and the one surviving instructional airframe was later restored to depict the number '401' Spitfire Mk. IX. This airplane is now preserved at Dansk Veteranflysamling at Stauning Airport in Jutland.^[3]

In the 1960s and 1970s the RDAF operated a number of American-built Lockheed F-104G Starfighters and North American F-100D and F Super Sabres. These century fighters were replaced from January 1980 with the General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon.

In 1999 following the end of the Cold War the air force was re-organised to be an expeditionary air force, capable of supporting international operations worldwide.

In 2002 Denmark joined the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Team, up to 48 F-35 may be bought to replace the F-16.

In October 2002 a tri-national detachment of 18 Danish, Netherlands and Norwegian F-16 ground attack aircraft and one Netherlands KDC-10 tanker, deployed to Manas Air Base in Kyrgyzstan in support of ground forces in Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom.

In 2004 the original Lockheed C-130H Hercules fleet of 3 aircraft (bought in 1973) was replaced by 4 advanced C-130Js.

In 2005 a modification program (Mid Life Update) was completed on the surviving F-16 aircraft. The modification programme started in 1995 introduces a new mission computer, color multifunction displays and other avionic improvements.

In 2006 the RDAF signed a letter of intent to purchase the Boeing C-17 Globemaster III, the order is to be confirmed but is to be on the basis of a shared NATO C-17 fleet to support international deployments.

[edit] Organisation

Transport Wing based at Aalborg
- Esk 721
Helicopter Wing based at Karup
- Esk 722 (Helicopters are also based around Denmark for Search and Rescue)
- Esk 724
- SHT (Navy Helicopter Corps)
Fighter Wing based at Skrydstrup
- Esk 727
- Esk 730
Flyveskolen (Flying School) based at Karup

[edit] Operations

In 1999 the air force supported Operation Allied Force in Kosovo.
In 2002 and 2003 the air force provided F-16 aircraft to support Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
In 2004, Danish F-16 participated on NATO's Baltic Air Policing operation.

This article on military history is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

[edit] Equipment

Rescue-09 an AgustaWestland EH101

All Danish military aircraft have since the early sixties been registered with a pennant letter and the last three digits from the factory serial number. The Royal Danish Air Force currently operates :

AgustaWestland EH101 (delivery in progress) pennant letter M
Canadair CL-604 Challenger pennant letter C
Eurocopter AS550C2 Fennec pennant letter P
General Dynamics F-16AM and F-16BM pennant letters E and ET
Lockheed C-130J-30 Hercules pennant letter B
SAAB-MFI T-17 pennant letter T
Sikorsky S-61A pennant letter U
Westland Lynx 90 pennant letter S

[edit] Ranks

The officer rank insignia are as follows:

NATO Code

OF-10

OF-9

OF-8

OF-7

OF-6

OF-5

OF-4

OF-3

OF-2

OF-1

OF-D-

Student Officer

Denmark
(Edit)

No equivalent

General

Generalløjtnant

Generalmajor

Brigadegeneral

Oberst

Oberstløjtnant

Major

Kaptajn

Premierløjtnant

Løjtnant

Sekondløjtnant

NATO Code	OR-9						OR-8		OR-7		OR-6						OR-5						OR-4		OR-3		OR-2						OR-1
Denmark (Edit)											No equivalent
Denmark (Edit)	Chefsergent						Seniorsergent		Oversergent		No equivalent						Sergent			Værnepligtig sergent (No longer in use)			Korporal		Flyverspecialist		Flyveroverkonstabel						Flyverkonstabel