Despite the fact that today the Air Force buried one of its fighters and mourns another one, the duty of defending the homeland and training for it does not stop.
Today the Air Force and the Navy started joint training with the Spanish Navy which has brought the mini aircraft carrier "Juan Carlos", a frigate and a General Support vessel to the south of the Peloponnese.
CONTINUE READING
"Μίνι αεροπλανοφόρο" TCG ANADOLU: Το Bayraktar TB3 θα μπει σε μαζική παραγωγή στα τέλη του 2023
In the area designated by Athens with a relevant NOTAM, south of the Peloponnese, today two Greek F-16s trained together with two Spanish Harriers in aerial combat, with the Greek pilots as expected stealing the show thanks to their skills and the superiority of their aircraft versus Spanish.
Tomorrow in the program of the joint exercise there will be a "slow mover protection" exercise in which a Greek Apache helicopter and a Chinook will try to go to Maleme, Crete and 4 Spanish Harriers from "Juan Carlos" will try to block them. The "protection-escort" of the helicopters will be undertaken by two Greek F-16s.
Co-training with the "Juan Carlos" will also have the Navy with its unit that is already in the specific area.
It should not escape our attention that the 'Juan Carlos' is the vessel on which Turkey built its own mini aircraft carrier 'Anadolu'. The staffs, in addition to the value of this exercise, are ready to utilize visual material from this exercise.
One can easily perceive the impact they will have on Ankara, the photos of the Greek fighters and units of the Greek Navy with the twin ship of "Anadolu" in the background. Those of us who specialize in peacetime psychological operations could say and write much more...
"Juan Carlos" has a 202 meter flight deck, with a ski jump ramp. The ship's flight deck has eight docking points for medium-sized helicopters, Harrier fighters, F-35 Lightning II or four docking points for CH-47 Chinook or V-22 Osprey-sized heavy helicopters.
The ship can carry either 30 medium helicopters or 10/12 McDonnell Douglas AV-8B Harrier II or Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II and 10/12 heavy helicopters, using the second deck as an additional storage area.
The ship uses diesel-electric propulsion, simultaneously connecting both the diesel and the new technology gas turbine in a pair of azimuth pods, a first in the Spanish Navy.
The ship's crew is approximately 900 naval personnel, with equipment and support elements for 1,200 soldiers. The multifunctional garage and shed space on two levels covers 6,000 m2, with a load capacity of 6,000 tons on each level. A 69.3 by 16.8 meter aft deck can accommodate four LCM-1E landing craft capable of beaching non-sailing ground vehicles such as heavy armor and four RHIBs, or one landing hovercraft.
