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NATO TEST FOR GRIPEN
By Stefan Petersen
The weather men have erred again: instead of the unbroken cloud cover that was predicted in the morning's briefing, wide stretches of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, bathed in sunshine, are visible below us. Not yet in sight are the two Swedish Gripens which the fighter controller of ”Mindreader” – Cölpin Control and Reporting Centre near New Brandenburg – is leading to our two MiG-29's.
”OK, here they come.” My pilot, Wing Commander Peter ”Stoini” Steiniger, has spotted the tiny grey dots well before I could make them out with my eyes, though it has to be said that the JAS 39A, a mere 14.1m long and with a wingspan of 8.4m, is the dwarf among modern fighter aircraft, smaller even than the F-16.
Flight Lieutenants Dan Eriksson and Adam Nelson manoeuvre their two ”Griffins” behind the MiG-29G piloted by US Major Doug ”Vinnie” Russell – the American exchange pilot from 1 Squadron of Fighter Group 73 ”Steinhoff” is leading this ”2 versus 2” mission. Stoini manoeuvres our MiG-29GT two-seater into position and we carry out the planned photo shoot before the four jets break off: Mindreader has issued fresh instructions relating to the real mission objective of providing neutral Sweden with the opportunity for air combat training to NATO standards.
The visit of six JAS 39's from F10 wing from the southern Swedish base of Ängelholm to Fighter Group 73 ”S” in Laage, North Germany, is a premier in two respects: not only is this the first time that the Gripens have trained with a NATO squadron, but it is also the first time they have flown operationally outside Sweden.
”Our security policy is in the process undergoing a change of orientation, away from pure defence of the homeland to operations in Europe,” explains Squadron Leader Per Alriksson, the Swedish project officer in charge of the transfer. ”From 1 January 2004 a squadron of Gripens is to be available as a Swedish Rapid Reaction Force for missions on behalf of the European Union or under the mandate of UNO, and as these missions often follow NATO standards, we need to familiarise ourselves with their procedures.”
Flight Lieutenants Eriksson and Nelson are doing precisely that: Mindreader has guided the two sides to within 60 km of each other in air combat zone ED-R 206/306 above Laage, and the fight can now begin. We are the bad guys: the two-seater is acting as a bomber and the single-seater MiG as its escort. The two Swedes, whose callsigns are ”Viking 1” and ”Viking 2”, are supposed to be intercepting us.
But we are a practice target with clipped wings: whereas the Gripens only have to observe the Mach 0.9 speed limit, the MiGs are not allowed to use afterburner or to pull more than 5g when turning either. Thus it is only a few minutes before Stoini and I fall victim to Viking 2, while Vinnie is ”taken out” by Viking 1.
These restrictions, which have been imposed at the request of the Swedes, are not without good reason. ”For us this is the first step in a new direction,” says Squadron Leader Alriksson. ”We want to concentrate on the standard procedures and radio messages and the basic geometry of NATO interception procedures, which have a number of differences compared with the ones we are used to in Sweden.” Before coming away to Germany, the Swedes had already run through the English-language radio calls.
Another major concern of Sweden's, Alriksson adds, is at this early phase of its realignment of security policy to get through the operation without any incidents. ”Simply avoid any risks.”
To accustom the twelve pilots from Ängelholm to flying in NATO airspace, each of them has completed a ”1 versus 1” mission – one Gripen versus one MiG – at the start of the five-day visit to Laage before trying their hand at the more demanding ”2 versus 2” missions. ”That is the main focus of the training,” says Squadron Leader Markus Treinies, project officer on the German side. Altogether, eight missions like this are to be flown during the week, one of them at night. ”The climax is then the ”3 versus 2 plus 2” scenarios – four flights of three Gripens versus four MiGs, with two of the MiGs acting as bombers and two as escorts. Here the Gripens can use quite different tactics from us, thanks to their highly developed datalink system.”
This technology permits up to four JAS 39's to exchange all the important information from radar and other sensors in real-time during a mission, so that every pilot has a complete picture of the air situation of the entire formation, even if individual aircraft are some distance apart.
In the extreme case, one Gripen can lead three others whose radars are switched off into battle and function as their eyes. The opponent receives only a single radar warning and may not realise that the threat is actually four times as great as he thinks until he has been shot down by one of the three ”silent” jets. ”Information superiority” is the term used by the Swedes to describe their concept of waging air warfare.
But in practice Viking 1 and 2 hardly need to deploy such technical tricks to emerge victorious in an exercise scenario in which the MiGs are at such a disadvantage. The two-seater does not have any radar, and the best indicator that the ”Griffins” will shortly be with us again is the frantically flashing radar warning receiver in the cockpit, which indicates that the Swedish Ericsson-PS-05/A pulse Doppler radar has already passed our plane's details to the on-board computer of a Gripen as a target. This time we are ”killed” even more quickly than on the first engagement, and even Vinnie in his radar-equipped fighter aircraft cannot remain in the fray for much longer.
It is largely thanks to the American major that Fighter Group 73 was the partner for this first training week. He had met Wing Commander Per Nilsson, captain of 2 Squadron of Wing F10 three years earlier in the USA, where Nilsson was attending a staff training course in Maxwell as a non-NATO exchange officer. ”I already knew at the time that I would be going to Laage as an exchange pilot,” explains Major Russell, ”and we decided to stay in contact. Perhaps there would be an opportunity to fly together.”
Ängelholm is actually very close to the German base: the two airfields are separated by only 250 km as the crow flies, 27 minutes from take-off to landing. The visit was originally planned for September 2001. It had to be postponed once, but now Nilsson is there with his squadron.
The Swedes travelled by a combination of land, sea and air. As well as the six jets which flew in, a C-130 Hercules took care of the transportation of materiel, while most of the approximately 50 men and one woman in the detachment plus the necessary vehicles came by ferry across the Baltic Sea.
In Laage the Swedes were assigned a separate area, from where they were able to operate their technology completely independently. Only the aircrew are staying most of the time with the host MiG squadron, where all the missions are planned and debriefs are held following the completion, for the sake of simplicity.
This debrief turns out to be quite one-sided on our flight, although the MiGs have done their best to avoid making things too easy for the Vikings. On the third and last ”set-up”, Stoini and I are soon out of the picture, as before, but Vinnie sticks around bravely and tries to get in a position to fire himself. Then at an altitude of 9,000ft (2,750m), a dogfight even starts up, but Viking 1 gains the upper hand, as planned. ”OK, terminate,” we finally hear our American formation leader say over the radio.
One of the most serious differences between the Swedish and NATO ways of flying is the units used to denote critical parameters: whereas the Alliance count in knots, feet and nautical miles, the instruments in the Gripen show metres and kilometres. ”It is quite new to us to fly with this data,” says Alriksson. ”If we are to improve interoperability, we will have to change our standards in Sweden.”
The major has also discovered some tactical differences. However, the reasons for these lie more in the Gripen's ”swing role” capability, i.e. the ability to change missions in flight. ”We work out several plans before taking off so as to be able to respond to quite different situations.” This, Alriksson admits, of course only works because of the datalink facilities in the jets.
The Swedes, accustomed as they are to high technology, are astonished by the performance that is possible on the MiG-29. That the Fulcrum, with its two RD-33 engines each producing 81.3kN of thrust with afterburning, should have considerably more power available than the Gripen is no surprise. The JAS 39 is after all powered by a single RM12 turbofan developed by Volvo from the General Electric F404 turbine and delivering 80.5kN of thrust with afterburning. ”But they have been really surprised by what we can achieve despite the MiG's outdated avionics”, says Squadron Leader Treinies.
”Our radar does not produce a situation display, but despite that we still have a good view of the air combat situation. When you are using relatively unsatisfactory technology against fourth generation fighter aircraft , you develop the necessary instincts.”
Five pilots from Ängelholm have the opportunity to enjoy flying in the second seat of the MiG-29GT, and Squadron Leader Alriksson is one of them. The Swedes would have liked to reciprocate, but ”So far only one Gripen trainer has been officially delivered to the Swedish Air Force,” says Alriksson. Of course there are more trainers in operation, but they are still being flown under the flag of the manufacturer Saab.
The Swedish Air Force has ordered a total of 204 Gripens, 28 of them two-seaters, and a little over one-half of the aircraft have so far been delivered. The first 140 consist of 126 JAS-39A single-seaters and 14 JAS-39B trainers. These are to be followed by another 50 more advanced JAS 39C's plus 14 JAS 39D's, to be built in the Linköping production facility. The C/D versions have different air refuelling equipment, a cockpit with colour displays, a new on-board computer system, an on-board oxygen supply system and other enhancements compared with the A/B models. The C variant is to be equipped with a reconnaissance pod as well. ”From 2006 the Rapid Reaction Forces will also be equipped with the JAS 39C,” says Alriksson.
But there is still a long way to go before then. At any rate, the Swedes' first foray beyond their national borders is rated as a complete success by Squadron Leader Alriksson on his departure. ”We have seen a lot and learned a lot.” During the week the Gripen's reliability was also put to the test, and there was only one occasion when one of the jets was unserviceable due to a technical defect.
The next stage of familiarising the Swedish Air Force with NATO ways is scheduled for the autumn, when the Gripens are sent on a NATO exercise in Norway. Then, next year they are scheduled to take part in exercise Frisian Flag in Holland. ”And we shall be coming back to Laage,” says Alriksson. ”But then we will be carrying out proper air combat manoeuvres!
