This year the multinational exercise “Elite 2010” was held from June 17th until July 1st. More than 1700 soldiers from 15 nations participated in the largest exercise of the German Air Force. The venue was the military training area of Heuberg in southern Germany. The 48 km² area was thereby used by fighter jets, transport aircrafts and helicopters from the surrounding air bases in Landsberg, Laupheim, Lechfeld and Neuburg / Danube. Elite stands for Electronic Warfare Live Training Exercise and evolved from an exercise of the 31st Fighter Bomber Wing in 1991, to prepare for the "Red Flag" military exercise arranged by the U.S. Air Force in Nevada. The interest in the ELITE exercise increased more and more, so that over the years even more units were involved, including Air Force, Army and Navy units of the German Bundeswehr. Also since 1995 partner nations have been taking part at ELITE. In this year's edition up to 15 nations were actively involved with weapon systems (Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Austria, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovenia, Spain and Turkey), and another eight countries sent observers (Australia, Denmark, Estonia, Israel, Pakistan, Sweden, Singapore and South Africa).

ELITE has grown to a two week, complex exercise and is used for training of flight crews and air defense units with a focus on electronic warfare. The participating soldiers can apply in realistic operational scenarios their newly acquired knowledge and analyze it at a later date since all actions will be recorded electronically. The main focus of the exercise is electronic reconnaissance, interference and attempts to deceive. With electronic jamming systems (also called "jammers") it will try to disrupt or to deceive the voice or data transmission of the enemy. This affects the frequency bands for voice or data transmission and also the spectrum of radar devices . The utilised systems are both ground-based ones, mounted on trucks or tanks, and also aircraft such as the Dassault Falcon DA 20 ECM of the Norwegian Air Force, which is equipped with jammers, or fighter jets, which carry in addition to their passive countermeasures anti-radar missiles to attack the enemy air defenses.

While the Royal Air Force Tornados are equipped with the European ALARM (Air-Launched Anti-Radiation Missile) missile, the German and Spanish crews rely on the American type AGM-88 HARM (High-Speed Anti-Radiation Missile). During the exercise the participating aircraft were spread across several bases. Most of the participants were flying from the base of the 32nd fighter-bomber squadron stationed in Lechfeld, home of the 321st Tigers. The squadron was founded in 1958 and initially flew Republic F-84 "Thunderstreak followed by Lockheed F-104G "Starfighter" until 1984 the Panavia Tornado was introduced. In 1991, a conversion was undertaken from the pure fighter-bomber Tornado IDS to the electronic warfare version of the Tornado – the ECR, which is still in service.

In addition to the German Tornados there were following aircraft based in Lechfeld: Six Tornado GR.Mk4 from No. 9 Squadron Marham of the Royal Air Force, five modernized Turkish McDonnell Douglas F-4E 2020 "Terminator" from the Korsan Squadron based in Malatya-Erhac, three Polish Lockheed Martin F-16C / D Block52 "Jastrzab" from Lask (Poland has the most modern version of the Fighting Falcon in Europe), three Spanish Boeing EF-18 "Hornet" from the Tiger Squadron Ala.15 from Zaragoza and two Dassault Falcon DA 20, normally based in Rygge, Norway. From Neuberg the Eurofighter Typhoon and McDonnell Douglas F-4F Phantom from the German Luftwaffe as well as Swiss Boeing FA-18 C "Hornet" started their missions. The transport aircraft were based in Landsberg. In addition to the local C -160D Transall of LTG-61 you could see French Transalls and CASA C-295 from Poland and Spain. The participating helicopters were German Sikorsky CH-53GS, Eurocopter PAH Tiger, Eurocopter NH-90 and Sikorsky Sea King Mk.41, Belgian Agusta A-109, Swiss AS-532UL Cougar" and Slovenian AS-532AL" Super Puma".

The aircraft movements were controlled by a French E-3F AWACS Boeing, which conducted its activities directly from its home base in Avord. In eleven days, a total of 700 flights had been completed. To keep noise pollution for the population low, the air traffic was restricted to between 9:30 - 12 a.m. and from 2 - 4:45 p.m.. On weekends there were no flying activities. On the military training area of Heuberg the air defense systems were installed by a total of eleven nations. These included not only Western systems, such as Mistral, Stinger, Rapier, Roland and Patriot systems also Russian designs, such as an SA-6 battery of the Hungarian armed forces were involved. This variety of different air defense facilities, particularly the involvement of Russian systems, makes Elite so unique and realistic at the same time for the flying units, as they can practice against enemy systems which they could meet again later in a real conflict scenario.

The next Elite maneuver takes place in 2012. Checksix would like to thank Fighter Bomber Wing 32 in Lechfeld for the perfectly organized photo day.

Christian Spreitzer / CHK 6 Austria