In conjunction with Frisian Flag 2016, I also had the pleasure to witness another exercise that was taking place simultaneously in the Netherlands, in particular at Eindhoven Air Base. The exercise, named European Air-to-Air Refueling Training is organised by the European Air Transport Command (EATC) that is also based at Eindhoven. EATC aims to provide participating nations effective and efficient air transport, air to air refuelling and aeromedical evacuation missions setting the benchmark in Europe.
The overall aim of EART is to train the participants (air and ground crews) to be able to run a tanker operation from a deployed operating base (DOB). This also includes training elements like multi tanker formation or different rendezvous procedures, which is not possible in day to day operations. During EART, the crews have the unique possibility to gain or regain their qualifications in a short amount of time and within a realistic scenario. Thus, the presence of such a large scale military exercise such as Frisian Flag occurring within the same country gives EATC the perfect venue to stage EART.
EART 2016 saw the participation of four different tankers from The Netherlands, France, Germany and Italy together with their air and ground crews. The United States participated with a team of observer (without assets) in the training. Like Frisian Flag, the aircraft took off in two waves, departing early in the morning, returning just before lunchtime, and later taking off after lunch and returning back in the late afternoon.
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