Tuesday,
July 21, 2020 our National Holiday took place with a limited
overflight of the city of Brussels by an NH90 NFH stationed in
Koksijde and a formation of F-16's from the airbase at Florennes.
The Belgian Air Force opened the modest parade just after 14:00 with
an overflight of a NH90 with the Belgian flag (4x6m). It performs
daily SAR missions at the Belgian coast.
The passage of
the NH90 was followed by 3 formations of F-16's which flew over the
Royal Palisades from a southerly direction. These completed an 8-month
NATO mission in the Baltic States at the end of April.
In the autumn
(October), 4 F-16 fighters will participate in a mission in support of
the international coalition in the fight against Daesh in Syria and
Iraq. The fighters will be stationed in Jordan for one year and will
require a permanent presence with 4 F-16's and about 100 men.
As a tribute to
the efforts of the medical personnel and the Belgian population during
the current COVID-19 health crisis, the first two F-16 formations
continued their flight over the entire Belgian territory, after having
flown over the Royal Palace. These fighters, in formations of three
aircraft, then flew over the various provincial capitals.
They followed a western route (Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Mons, Namur,
supplemented by Ostend) and an eastern one (Leuven, Wavre, Hasselt,
Liège, Arlon, supplemented by Dinant). All F-16's landed safely back
at Florennes airbase after a few low passes.
This overflight
consisted of a "victory formation" -flight of three F-16
fighters, with the leader of the western route decorated with
"invasion stripes".
The leader of
the eastern route was the Belgian F-16 display aircraft, the Dark
Falcon. |