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Aviation History
1989
1989 - 0027.PDF
and air reinforcement in support of Nato. Two radar installations in the southern part of the island provide an early warning capa bility for the defence force. This is enhanced by two E-3A Sentry aircraft of the 960th airborne warning and control squadron, assigned to the 28th Air Division, based at Tinker Air Force Base, Oklahoma. An improved capability will be available from 1990 onwards, when two new AN/FPS-117 radars under construction on Iceland's northern coast become operational. Antisubmarine warfare In his capacity as the Commander of Fleet Air Keflavik, McVadon is responsible for co ordinating antisubmarine warfare, which uses an assigned force of nine P-3C Orion aircraft deployed from the US Navy's 5th patrol wing, based at Brunswick Naval Air Station, Maine. Currently, patrol squadron Hi (VP-11) is on station at Keflavik, under Commander Don Miskill. VP-11 relieved VP-10 in November 1988, at the end of its six-month deployment. An additional P-3 operates from Keflavik on rotations of one month duration. This aircraft is supplied on detachment from the Royal Netherlands Navy. Antisubmarine warfare (ASW) aircraft from other Nato countries are also common visitors to Iceland, especially at the time of defence exercises such as Teamwork and Ocean Safari. VP-10 played an important part in the recently-completed Teamwork 88 Nato exercise. Patrol squadrons have been part of the Top United States Navy P-3C Orions fly ten-hour sorties from Iceland to monitor the movement of Soviet submarines and surface vessels. Above Commander Don Miskill is the commanding officer of Patrol Squadron 11, currently serving its six- month detachment at NAS Keflavik defence force since its inception in 1951. Early patrols were flown by P-2 aircraft, but these were replaced by P-3s in 1965. Each of the P-3Cs flown by the current Navy patrol squadrons have the latest avionic fit (update 2-5). According to Miskill, the role of the patrol squadron within the defence force is "to constantly update Nato's intelligence picture of the Soviet northern fleet of ships and submarines". This involves piecing together a "jigsaw" of information gathered from photographs, passive sonar buoys, radars, magnetic anomaly detectors, and a host of other sensitive passive listening devices. Miskill says that a typical mission lasts nine to ten hours, five hours of which will be spent "on station". The Orion's 12-man crew consists of three pilots, two flight engineers, a tactics co ordinator, a navigator communicator, a mechanic, a technician, and three people to man the sensor stations (two for the acoustic stations, and one for the non-acoustic). The Orion's avionics fit will reach its limit when it is brought to Update 3 standard. The aircraft will then be replaced by the new Lockheed-built P-3G long-range air-ASW capable aircraft (Lraaca). Lraaca will have Update IV avionics, which is being inte grated into the airframe by Boeing. In terms of quantities of aircraft, the major presence at Keflavik is provided by the USAF, under the title Air Forces Iceland. This force is a part of Tactical Air Command (TAC), and comprises six units. The largest, the 57th fighter interceptor squadron (FIS), comprises more than 600 personnel. The 57th FIS, known as the Black Knights, currently operates 18 F-15C Eagles. Since it was activated in Iceland in November 1954, when it relieved the 80th IFS, it has operated Northrop F-89C Scorpions, Convair F-102 Delta Daggers, and McDonnell Douglas F-4Cs/-Es. Its task 'LIGHTINTERNATIONAL, 7 January 1989 25
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