After the Arabian desert, the Rafale subjected to the icy conditions of Lithuania

From our special envoy to Lithuania,

They are more accustomed to the 45°C of the Arabian desert than to the -10°C of the Baltic coast. For the pilots of the 30th fighter wing of Mont-de-Marsan (Landes) as for their Rafale, the air policing mission eAP (enhanced Air Policing) which they carry out since December and until April in Šiauliai in Lithuania is a first.

Although this is the Air Force’s ninth participation in eAP since 2014, and the sixth in Lithuania, France did not send its Rafales for these long-duration missions – except once in 2014 when the office was still called Balting Air Policing (BAP) and it was in May – but Mirages, like in the spring of 2022 in Estonia.

The French contingent in Lithuania is made up of around a hundred soldiers. – Mickael Bosredon

“The main novelty for us is the change in environment and temperature, with wind and snowfall,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan, the head of the French detachment, commander of the 2-30 Normandy fighter regiment. -Niémen, and one of the six pilots of the BA 118 based in Šiauliai. Pilots whose main external operations have been carried out so far within the framework of Chammal in Iraq and Syria, “whether from the planned air base in Jordan or from Al Dhafra in the Emirates, since it is the place where the Rafales have been most engaged since 2016.”

“We must have had blue skies four times in two and a half months”

In Lithuania, the snow has sometimes been so heavy since December that “even though the snowplow was running all night, we were unable to take off on some mornings,” explains Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan. Fortunately only exercises were scheduled on those days. “If there had been real alerts, we would obviously have adapted our rules. »

As for the blue of the sky, the French hunters mostly saw it… from their cockpits. “In the two and a half months spent on the base, we must have had blue skies four times. After all, we didn’t expect to see so little sunshine…” admits the officer. “We have wind, very low ceilings, snow… The weather is very different from what we usually know. We were a little impressed, but we got used to it quickly” adds Captain Mickaël, pilot with the 3/30 Lorraine squadron.

At night, temperatures can drop to -15°C. But only the soldiers on call sleep in the prefabricated buildings of the air base, the others being lodged in the hotels of Šiauliai, a small town which lives to the rhythm of the NATO detachments on the spot.

“With the cold, we pay attention to certain things”

And the device? The Rafale has already been subjected to such weather conditions, or even worse, in particular during two one-week deployments in Finland this winter. But this is the first time that he has remained so long confronted with such conditions, four months in all, the French permanence in Šiauliai ending on April 1st. If the pilots are relieved at mid-term, the devices remain in place. “It behaved well, assures Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan, you just have to be careful to close the hangars in which they are positioned to maintain a correct temperature and prevent the hydraulic circuits from freezing. »

“With the cold, we pay attention to certain little things, because the recurring breakdowns – details – will not be the same as in the desert”, continues the sergeant “G5”, track rider. “It’s more up to us to adapt” adds the mechanic, whose mission is to check the aircraft before and after the flight.

Armament “also made to work in the cold”

The French contingent present in Lithuania has a hundred soldiers in all. “We have around fifty mechanics with us, specialists in information and communication systems to communicate with our NATO partners, firefighters specializing in rescue on Rafale and who have organized training sessions with Lithuanian firefighters , and all the logistics which is a big piece in this kind of mission”, enumerates the head of the detachment.

The fuel is provided by the host nation, but the French have taken in their luggage “two members of the operational energy service (SEO) who recover and control the fuel, to check that the standards are respected. Air Force commando riflemen (fuscos) are also on site to ensure the security of fighter planes and armament day and night.

The armament mechanic checks the safety devices on the missile carriers.
The armament mechanic checks the safety devices on the missile carriers. – Mickael Bosredon

For its Baltic airspace control missions, the Rafale takes off systematically armed. “We put infrared and electromagnetic missiles there as well as an armed cannon, and all the decoy and protection systems of the aircraft in the event of an external threat” describes an armament mechanic, whose role is also to “check departure of the aircraft that all the electrical safeties have been removed, and that the armament is intact. » The effects of the weather? “Everything is done so that it also works in the cold,” smiles the mechanic.

source site