German Air Force practices protection of major cities

For the first time, the Air Force will relocate combat aircraft to a civilian airport for four days as part of the “Hannover Shield 2023” exercise on November 27th. Then three Eurofighters from the Tactical Air Force Squadron 71 “Richthofen” (TaktLwG 71 “R”) from the Wittmund Air Base in Lower Saxony will be temporarily stationed at the airport in the Lower Saxony state capital. The unarmed jets are scheduled to take off from there twice a day for training flights towards the North Sea.

Against the background of the experience of Russian bombing terror against the Ukrainian civilian population, the German fighter jets should be able to protect a large city from possible attacks from the air by drones or cruise missiles. “We,” says Lieutenant General Ingo Gerhartz, Air Force Inspector, “want to improve our options for protecting population centers.” The aircraft could detect and counteract threats in the air at an early stage, and they complement ground-based defense systems such as “Patriot” or, in the future, IRIS-T .

Das Geschwader in Wittmund nutzt den Flughafen Hannover schon seit einigen Jahren als Ausweichflugplatz. „Den“, so Brigadegeneral Frank Gräfe, Abteilungsleiter für Einsätze und Übungen im Kommando Luftwaffe in Berlin, „muss ein militärisches Flugzeug vor jedem Start definieren.“ Hannover sei ausgewählt worden, weil man mit dem Flughafen in den vergangenen Jahren bereits gut zusammengearbeitet habe. Außerdem sei die Start- und Landebahn lang genug für den Eurofighter.

“I hope,” said Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) when presenting the exercise concept, “that the people in and around Hanover will understand this.” At least there should be no alarm starts – and therefore no sonic booms. “For our passengers,” added airport managing director Martin Roll, “there will be no impact on regular flight operations.”

Gerd Portugall

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