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Belgian and Dutch F-16s will make a single sky

Dutch and Belgian F-16 patrol in the Dutch sky © NGV / B2

(B2 in Rotterdam) From January 1, there will only be four duty planes to monitor the skies between the Meuse, the Scheldt and the Rhine, but only one patrol of duty F-16s providing surveillance air from the Netherlands and Belgium. The last act was signed this Wednesday (December 21) in Rotterdam by Generals Dennis Luyt and Frederik Vansina, respectively Commander of the Belgian Air Component and Commander of the Dutch Air Force, and Pierre-Louis Lorenz, the Luxembourg Ambassador to the -Bas, under the watchful eye of the Belgian and Dutch ministers (Steven Vandeput and Jeannine Hennis) ... and a few journalists including B2.

An example to follow

« This agreement against the air threat is simply revolutionary said Steven Vandeput, Minister of Defence. " Belgium and the Netherlands set the tone in Europe for defense cooperation. There is no other country committing itself with others to act in this type of serious facts occurring within the borders of each country. "With this deal" we will have the same result as before but we will need less resources to do it. What we save we can use to increase our defense elsewhere »

A relay every four months between Belgian and Dutch forces

From January 1, the Dutch and Belgian F-16s will take turns, every four months, to provide rapid reaction air alert (QRA in aeronautical jargon), from their respective bases. For the Netherlands, from the air bases of Volkel and Leeuwarden and for Belgium from the air bases of Kleine Brogel and Florennes (1). It is the Belgians who will be the first to take the alert. In fact, the airspace will form a single territory where the forces on alert will act under the orders and on behalf of the other country, regardless of their flag.

Each State retains its responsibility

Belgian fighter planes which intercept a device in the Dutch sky, will do so on the order of the Dutch Minister of Defense and Justice who will give his instructions via the AOCS (Air Operations Control Station) by Nieuw Milligen. Conversely, the Belgian Minister of Defense will have authority over Dutch aircraft via the CRC (Control and Reporting Center) of Glons, if they operate above Belgian territory. In Luxembourg, it is the Luxembourg Minister of Defense who takes on this responsibility. But the Grand Duchy has excluded any use of force above its territory, Constitution obliges.

Takeoff for civilian planes in distress but also for suspicious planes

QRA comes into play when an aircraft is flying in national airspace without submitting an advance flight plan or identifying itself, or if it has deviated from its intended route and no longer responds to radio signals. . The planes often take off to accompany civil aircraft (airliners or small private planes) that are facing technical problems. But they can also take to the air to intercept an aircraft exhibiting suspicious behavior (everyone thinks of the September 11 attacks) or a foreign military aircraft that is slightly grazing national airspace. One thinks in particular of the Russian planes. If it is a military mission carried out by the QRA - in the event of an interception of a foreign suspicious military aircraft, then the mission is commanded from the NATO Combined Air Operations Center (CAOC) in Uedem, in Germany.

Note: a prosecution agreement has already been signed with Germany. And an identical agreement should be signed with France next February on the sidelines of a NATO meeting of defense ministers, Belgian Defense Minister Steven Vandeput told B2.

(Nicolas Gros-Verheyde)

(1) Luxembourgers do not have a fighter aircraft fleet. It is traditionally the Belgian air force which carries out the work of QRA.

Lire: The Benelux will have joint aerial surveillance. Treaty signed. A first in Europe

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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