Ovar (LPOV) - 2012 MIL

[Stefan]

http://www.eda.europa.eu/events/12-07-0 ... BLADE_2012

Portugal will host HOT BLADE 2012, a multinational helicopter exercise, from 4 to 18 July 2012, based at Ovar Military Airfield, near Porto, Portugal. Delivered by the Portuguese Air Force and supported by Luxembourg, HOT BLADE 2012 is part of the European Defence Agency's Helicopter Training Program.

The exercise is being designed to allow European helicopter crews to practice operations in a hot, high and dusty environment, simulating the challenge and the dynamic conditions that participant forces will encounter when they deploy to a current theatre of operation.

Besides the focus on flying in challenging environmental conditions, the exercise will be developed to implement "Joint Interoperability Training" and efforts will be made to maximize integration of joint interoperability tasks, including Air Assault (AA), Special Operations Aviation (SOA), Combat Service Support (CSS), Close Air Support (CAS) including Urban CAS and Emergency CAS, Convoy/helicopter escorts, Reconnaissance and Security (R&S) operations, Combat Search and Rescue (CSAR), Personnel Recovery (PR), Military/Non Military extractions (NEO Ops), Medical Evacuation (MEDEVAC) and Casualty Evacuation (CASEVAC).

[Bennie]

GAF(0)14 is inbound Ovar on June 26th.

[Bennie]

GAF(0)14 is inbound Ovar on June 26th.

The same callsign is inbound Wunstorf from S-Europe on the 27th, likely the same aircraft.

[Bennie]

Inbound on July 3rd is GAF(0)16.

[michel N]

Participating in this exercise are 6 Bell-212's from the Austrian Army. These were seen overhead Switzerland yesterday.

[Thijs]

Two Dutch Chinooks and one Cougar are also participating according to radio logs. http://home.tiscali.nl/mysteryship/
Two German CH53s arrived by ship. http://www.emfa.pt/hotblade/index.php?b ... 8&lang=ING
An Austrian, Belgium and UK C-130 provided support.
Three Finnish NH90 also arrived by ship ( NH-210, -211 and -214. )

Portugal, Belgium, Sweden and the United Kingdom should also participate in the exercise.

More info here: http://www.emfa.pt/hotblade/

A spottersday is scheduled but subscription has closed.

[Phantom54]

Only observers from Sweden and UK, so no choppers!

[Phantom54]

Seen so far:

Austria
AB212 5D-HB
AB212 5D-HO
AB212 5D-HT
AB212 5D-HV
AB212 5D-HX

Support
C-130H 8T-CB

Belgium
A109BA H22
A109BA H41
A109BA H46

Support
C-130H CH-11

Germany
CH-53G 84+46
CH-53GA 84+68
CH-53G 84+72
CH-53G 84+80

Support
C-160D 50+81

Netherlands
AS532U2 S-441
CH-47D D-102
CH-47D D-665

Finland
NH90-TTT NH-210
NH90-TTT NH-211
NH90-TTT NH-214

Portugal
EH-101-516 19611
EH-101-516 19612

I will update the list asap!