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Posts Tagged ‘Greek Air Force patches’

343 Squadron – Red Flag Exercise

February 26th, 2009 | Author: airforce

The Red Flag exercises, held periodically at the Nellis Air Force Base since 1975, are very realistic aerial war games. The purpose is to give pilots from the U.S., NATO and other allied countries an opportunity to practice and refine their skills for real combat situations. This includes the use of “enemy” hardware and live ammunition for bombing exercises within the Nellis complex. The exercises with flares and all kinds of aircraft can make a spectacular show, especially at night. There are usually two or three sorties per day (except on weekends): One or two sorties during daytime and one in the evening or at night. The night exercises usually inlude only one half of the daytime forces.

There are two teams, the good guys (Blue Team) and the aggressors (Red Team). The Red Team is composed of Nellis AFB-based pilots specially trained for this purpose, flying F-15 and F-16 aircraft. The Blue Team is composed of the various guest “players” in their native aircraft.

335 Bomber Squadron of the Hellenic Air Force

February 12th, 2009 | Author: airforce

The 335 Squadron with callsign “Tiger”, is the oldest squadron of the Hellenic Air Force, as it was established when Greece was under German occupation, in October 1941 at the Palestinian airport of Akir, i.e. a few months after Greece’s total occupation by the Germans.

The first squadron pilots were officers of the Hellenic Royal Air Force, who had been sent to Iraq since 1940 to be trained by British officers, as well as many pilots who abandoned Greece after the occupation, for carrying on the liberation fight.

The squadron was initially equipped with the fighter aircraft Hurricane-IIB and thereafter with the Hurricane-IIC and was subordinated to the RAF 339 Combat Wing. With these aircraft, it operates until December 1943, when the modern Spitfire VB and VC replaced them.