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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0397.PDF
FLIGHT International, 15 March 1962 397 French eyes for AAFCE: RF-84F of the 33rd Reconnaissance Wing, French Air Force, based at Strasbourg-Entzheim AAFCE: Europe's Air Defence NATO'S SEVEN-NATION TACTICAL AIR FORCES By Humphrey Wynn A CANADIAN fighter wing on a French airfield near the Rhine; United States Air Force Matador missile squadrons in the German woods near Trier; Delta Dagger intercepters on a Dutch airfield; Nike missiles manned by the Belgian Air Force; a German Air Force fighter-bomber wing training to operate F-104Gs; Netherlands Air Force Hunters and French Air Force RF-84Fs; an RAF air marshal commanding one tactical air force, a USAF general the other: such is the multi-national picture of Allied Air Forces Central Europe, biggest gathering of air forces ever brought together on a permanent footing in peacetime, contri buted by seven nations and forming the largest air arm of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. From the teeming towns of Belgium to the plains of north Ger many, from the flat acres of the Netherlands to the mountains of Bavaria, AAFCE keeps radar watch beyond the Iron Curtain and can react to any offensive move within minutes. This is Europe's first defence against potential aggression, and the organization which sustains it is vast, complex, dispersed and international. To see even some of the ramifications, you need to travel hundreds of miles: on a recent limited tour the writer covered 1,300 miles in five days. Yet this was only a sampling reconnaissance, taking in the two tactical air force headquarters and one station of each of the seven air forces. It was enough, however, to create vivid impres sions and help to form a picture of the whole. Allied Air Forces Central Europe headquarters are at Fontaine- bleau, south-east of Paris; the commander-in-chief is Air Chief Marshal the Earl of Bandon. The problems and potentialities of the organization he heads were discussed in an article on "Nato Air Organization" published in Flight of June 22, 1961 (earlier articles on AAFCE were published in 1953, and on 2nd TAF in 1954). It is not intended here to recapitulate what was said last year, but to expand upon it by more detailed observations. In particular, three factors which were quoted as having strengthened the NATO allies in recent months may be mentioned again as a text for the present description: "addition of missiles to the West European defensive armour; co-ordination of air defence, so that both surface-to-air missiles and manned aircraft are under a unified control; and an increased West German contribution to the NATO armed forces." Before seeing how these factors enter the picture at local level, it would be as well to set the overall scene by taking a look at the organization of the two wings of AAFCE, Second and Fourth Allied Tactical Air Forces. The former has headquarters at Munchen Gladbach in the Ruhr area; the latter is also German- based, at Ramstein. Respective commanders are Air Marshal Sir
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