The Royal Danish Air Force regularly heads south to France in the winter months to enable it to make the most of better weather conditions and keep on top of its training.
ROYAL DANISH AIR FORCE
THE WINTER MONTHS in Scandinavia often mean poor flying conditions as murky weather sets in. Even though Denmark is rarely hit by massive snowstorms, problems such as fog, ice in the clouds and generally bad visibility lead to the cancellation of almost a third of all missions planned at Fighter Wing Skrydstrup — home of the Flyvevåbnet (Royal Danish Air Force, RDAF) F-16 fleet — during the winter months. These are not the most conducive circumstances for fast jet flying.
On days when flying is possible, there is often no clear view of the ground, which means that no air-to-ground training can be flown, and conversion training for new pilots is virtually impossible.
Given the fact that operating the RDAF F-16 fleet costs around 1 billion Danish kroner ($143 million) each year, missing what equates to a month of flying is estimated to cost about $12 million. Deploying to southern Europe for the whole of January makes both operational and economic sense.
Therefore, for the past decade, the Skrydstrup fliers have d…
