An excellent report from the Spanish Air Force about its deployment in Alaska

@DefAviation ES 7·16·2024 · 20:51 0

Pacific Skies 2024 around the world is the largest aerial deployment carried out by the Spanish Air Force in decades.

The flight of US F-15E fighter-bombers with Spanish Eurofighters over Alaska
Pacific Skies, the largest aerial deployment of the Spanish Air Force in decades

This deployment is organized jointly with the German and French Air Forces. Currently, the airmen and aircraft that are part of this deployment are in Alaska, the northernmost of the states that are part of the United States.

The Arctic Defender exercise takes place there, in collaboration with the Air Force and the United States Marine Corps. This is a live fire exercise and its base of operations is Eielson AFB, in the Fairbanks metropolitan area. The Air Force has published today an excellent report showing this deployment and interviewing some of the people who are part of it (the video is in Spanish, you can activate the automatic English subtitles in the bottom bar of the player):

This deployment is made up of 120 members of the Air Force, 4 Eurofighter Typhoons from the 11th and 14th Wings, an A400M transport plane from the 31st Wing and an A330 transport plane from the 45th Group.

In addition to the aforementioned units, 15 days before this deployment, personnel from the Air Deployment Support Squadron (EADA) arrived in Alaska to organize the arrival of the rest of the Spanish contingent. There are also members of the Air Medical Unit for Deployment Support (UMAAD-Zaragoza), who offer support to our compatriots in health matters; the Aerial Master of Albacete (MAESAL), in charge of producing the spare parts that are needed during this deployment; and the Logistics Center for Armament and Experimentation (CLAEX).

The Arctic Defender exercise is one of the three scheduled during this trip around the world and it is the only one in which it is planned to use real weapons. This is a very demanding Red Flag type exercise in which the Spanish Eurofighters have launched 500 kg GBU-16 Paveway II laser-guided bombs. These bombs have been assembled in Alaska with some components transferred from Spain and others purchased from the US Armed Forces. The next two exercises will take place in Australia and India, which are other stops planned for this round-the-world trip.

According to the Spanish Air Force, in this exercise in Alaska, Spain is in charge of leading the planning and execution for two full days, "acting as Mission Commander. In addition, during for another two days he will be the one who leads the air-to-air combat (Offensive Counter Air missions) and will act, for another full day, as the leader and coordinator of the air-ground missions (Air Interdiction)."

The Spanish Air Force points out that the objective of these practices "is to train personnel in launching weapons in a totally new environment, as well as to practice the entire sequence of assembly, support and maintenance to ground support personnel."

This exercise represents a great opportunity for Spanish aviators: to test their Eurofighters against fifth-generation fighters such as the F-22 Raptor and the F-35A Lightning II of the USAF, two fighters with stealth capability, that is, whose radar signature is considerably lower than that of other combat aircraft, which makes them practically undetectable. To this we must add a considerable advantage of the F-22: its maneuverability, thanks to the vector nozzles that this aircraft has.