After a good three weeks, the “Desert Air 2023” exercise in Jordan came to an end at the beginning of November. The participation of the German Armed Forces consisted of six Eurofighter combat aircraft from the Tactical Air Force Wing 73 “Steinhoff” from Laage/Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and a total of 80 soldiers.
A fictitious scenario was used for the exercise, which had been planned for some time. Exercise flights took place several times a day with the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) to coordinate and fly air-to-air and air-to-ground operations in exercise areas. The airspace over Jordan offered optimal conditions and is not as densely flown and regulated as in Central Europe. Training could be carried out six days a week, including low-level flight training, for example.
The commanding officer of “Desert Air 2023”, Lieutenant Colonel Marco Brunhofer, therefore drew a positive balance: “For the first time, our Eurofighters were able to train together with Jordanian F-16 fighter jets in the challenging desert climate over Jordan. My men and women got the aircraft reliably into the air for almost 200 training flights. Our Eurofighters had an excellent level of readiness and, combined with the missions at the weekend, we achieved training objectives for which we would have needed more time in Germany. We have shown that we can sustainably operate six Eurofighters in this region and we were able to deepen our partnership with the Jordanian Air Force.” After the official end of the exercise, the Eurofighters, personnel and equipment will return to Laage in the 45th calendar week. https://militaeraktuell.at/oesterreich-verstaerkt-die-eu-truppen-in-bosnien/ Background
The Bundeswehr is participating in the “Counter Daesh” (CD) and “Capacity Building Iraq” (CBI) missions as part of the coalition of international forces in the fight against the terrorist organization Islamic State, with Jordan serving as a hub in the area of operations. For these missions, the German Air Force provides capabilities such as air surveillance and operational support for the multinational coalition with tanker aircraft from Al-Azrak Air Base. The German exercise contingent for “Desert Air 2023” was based on the operational contingent stationed in Al-Azrak (e.g. accommodation, logistics, IT), but was not part of the German operational commitment in Jordan.
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