A major restructuring of Belgium's armed forces will see them shrink from 44,000 to 39,500 personnel by 2015. Independent commands for the air force, army and navy will be replaced by a unified structure and their logistics chains will merge into a single organisation.
Nominally part of NATO, the Belgian armed forces will be brought back under national control - although they will retain a NATO and Western European Union commitment - as the air force's tactical air command is disbanded and replaced by COMOPSAIR (Command Operations Air).
The three services will maintain their identities but the senior staff will become an executive branch within a centralised defence ministry command structure where civilians will be given some military responsibilities. The air force staff becomes COMOPSAIR while army and navy staffs become COMOPSLAND and COMOPSNAV, respectively. Following the latest reorganisation 26 military installations, bases and barracks will close.
Air force logistics will come under army command, resulting in the disbanding of 21 Logistics Wing and the closure of the major logistics base at Evere North. Weelde, a former NATO reserve air base used by the air force for aircraft storage, is to be closed and all aircraft are to be moved by road to Zutendaal.
Weelde is home to 20 mothballed Lockheed Martin F-16s that are kept for spares to keep the air force's 72 operational F-16s in the air until 2015, as well as a number of transports.
Source: Flight International
