Fighter Wing Skrydstrup is an air base of the

Royal Danish Air Force The Royal Danish Air Force () (RDAF) is the aerial warfare force of the Kingdom of Denmark and one of the four branches of the Danish Armed Forces. Initially being components of the Army and the Navy, it was made a separate service in 1950. I ...

(RDAF) situated in southern

Jutland Jutland (; , ''Jyske Halvø'' or ''Cimbriske Halvø''; , ''Kimbrische Halbinsel'' or ''Jütische Halbinsel'') is a peninsula of Northern Europe that forms the continental portion of Denmark and part of northern Germany (Schleswig-Holstein). It ...

. It is home to the 30 operative

F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

fighters of the RDAF along with a Saab T-17 Supporter, and a single

search and rescue Search and rescue (SAR) is the search for and provision of aid to people who are in distress or imminent danger. The general field of search and rescue includes many specialty sub-fields, typically determined by the type of terrain the search ...

helicopter covering southern Denmark. A total of 1000 people work at the fighter wing serving in the three groups Wing Staff, Operations Group and Maintenance Group. The air base covers an area of 838

hectares The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. A ...

with three runways with a length of 3,500 meters.

History

The air base was constructed by the

Luftwaffe The Luftwaffe () was the aerial warfare, aerial-warfare branch of the before and during World War II. German Empire, Germany's military air arms during World War I, the of the Imperial German Army, Imperial Army and the of the Imperial Ge ...

during the

German occupation of Denmark At the outset of World War II in September 1939, Denmark declared itself neutral, but that neutrality did not prevent Nazi Germany from occupying the country soon after the outbreak of war; the occupation lasted until Germany's defeat. The ...

as Fliegerhorst Hadersleben in 1943 as part of the

Atlantic Wall The Atlantic Wall () was an extensive system of coastal defence and fortification, coastal defences and fortifications built by Nazi Germany between 1942 and 1944 along the coast of continental Europe and Scandinavia as a defense (military), d ...

. The air base was designed to base 24

Heinkel He 177 The Heinkel He 177 ''Greif'' (Griffin) was a long-range heavy bomber flown by the ''Luftwaffe'' during World War II. The introduction of the He 177 to combat operations was significantly delayed by problems both with the development of its ...

bombers and a squadron of

Messerschmitt Bf 109 The Messerschmitt Bf 109 is a monoplane fighter aircraft that was designed and initially produced by the Nazi Germany, German aircraft manufacturer Messerschmitt#History, Bayerische Flugzeugwerke (BFW). Together with the Focke-Wulf Fw 190, the ...

or Focke-Wulf 190 fighters, along with a series of training and reconnaissance aircraft. Due to shortages in material and later alterations of the atlantic defence, the intended flights were never based at Skrydstrup. Instead, various smaller units of minesweepers, transport planes and training units used the air base in the last years of the occupation. After the war the air base was used as a camp for German refugees. In 1953 the Royal Danish Air Force decided to expand the runways to 3000 meters making it possible to base jet aircraft in Skrydstrup.

Squadron 727

Based i Skrydstrup

Squadron 730

In 1954, squadron 730 was established by the Danish

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

and based at Skrydstrup. The squadron consisted of F-84G Thunderjets facing ten crashes until their replacement in 1961 by F-100 Super Sabre, forming the core of the squadron for more than 20 years. In the mid-1970s the Super Sabres caused a series of crashes leading to a total grounding of the squadron for more than four months. Mechanical investigations revealed engine failures which were fixed and improved by 1977. But at this time preparations were being made to replace the Super Sabres with the new

General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic Multirole combat aircraft, multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF). Designed as an air superio ...

, which arrived at Skrydstrup in January 1980.

Deployment abroad

The introduction of the F-16 changed the physical setup at the air base as it was fit only for air defence, air policing, and air-to-surface attacks. The capability to perform long-range attacks and deploy aircraft around the world dominated the new setup instead of the traditional defensive structure. As a result, the first Danish military aircraft were deployed to the Red Flag exercise in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

in 1984. Since then, the squadron has been deployed in a series of military conflicts including

Operation Allied Force The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) carried out an aerial bombing campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War. The air strikes lasted from 24 March 1999 to 10 June 1999. The bombings continued until an a ...

in 1999,

Operation Enduring Freedom Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) was the official name used by the U.S. government for both the first stage (2001–2014) of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) and the larger-scale Global War on Terrorism. On 7 October 2001, in response ...

in 2002,

Operation Unified Protector Operation Unified Protector was a NATO operation in 2011 enforcing United Nations United Nations Security Council, Security Council United Nations Security Council resolution, resolutions United Nations Security Council Resolution 1970, 1970 and ...

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

in 2011 and seven F-16AM based at

Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base is a Kuwait Air Force base that is home to 3 Kuwait Air Force F/A-18 C/D squadrons: 9 Squadron, 25 Squadron, and 61 Squadron. The base also has an area designated for operations by the U.S. Air Force and its allies. H ...

in Kuwait to fight the

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

forces (ISIS / ISIL) in October 2014.

References

{{coord missing, Denmark Military installations of Denmark Royal Danish Air Force Region of Southern Denmark