HB
2014 Was overshadowed by the crash of flight MH17
It
was the time that flight MH17 Malaysian Airways was shot out of the air.
Amongst others 196 Dutch casualties were counted.
It
was very neat and heartening to see that exercise Hot Blade in Portugal
paid respect by lowering the Dutch flag and to pay special attention this
way
to
this horrible and terroristic act. We sincerely thank you for that. In our
minds we took two minutes silence in honour of victims and relatives.
HOTBLADE
EXERCISE OVAR PORTUGAL
Our
compromise:
We
choose for a compromise. Normally we show the publication on this
reference website, and a photographic impression joining.
Since
we have so many interesting images (own as well as from EDA, European
Defense Agency) we'd like to show you most of it.
It's
no use to provide every single image with captions, that would limit us in
showing the number of images.
Therefor
we limit the captions and give a minimum on information below the images. This way you
can have 'The Max' of it.
We
did actually divide the images more or less in groups, a few comments
can be read. We hope you like this format.
The
complete article in a whole as well can be read at the last page of this
publication
HOTBLADE:
THE CEREMONIAL OPENING
ANDY
GREY from EDA held his openingsspeech
Andy
is in fact the architect of the exercise
Openingsimpression
Openingsimpression
SOME
CAMP IMPRESSIONS
Press
center
The
camp was built out of containers. Part of the German camp left picture
The
English crews are having a briefing
The
Austrian part was located on the other side of the platform
The
large maintainance hangar on the field
A
view at the camp
Some
shadow was no luxury sometimes....
The
Dutch and the Germans brotherly together (like with football... ;-)
Is
it because of the Dutch ? Many people used a bike, they were even for hire
!
VIEW
ON THE PLATFORMS
Clean
the machine ! Guys of the RAF prepare the helicopter for its next flight.
Windows clean !
Our
guide helped us out extremely well. (m) Thank you Andre !
The
FAC and the JTAC have finished the job, they'll ride home and probably
will have a nice shower and a cold beer ;)
The
German UH-1 Bell's are also prepared for the night after an exhausting
day.
The
Belgian A-109 in the field, a nice hide-out spot between the grass
The
Dutch participated with their Chinooks
The
F-16's played a major role in HotBlade as well
...and
then there is the Merlin. Giant transport helicopter !
Cockpit
views
Large
interior with many possibilities
The
British were explicitly proud in participating in HotBlade with their
Puma's
C-295M
The
Dutch sold all their P-3C CUP Orions to Portugal and Germany. With the
current developments they wish they hadn't ....