Germany: 2 more fighter bases will be closed soon

[F-4G_rhino]

Heard this morning on "Hitradio Antenne Niedersachsen" :

The German politics plan to close 2 more jet-fighter airbases soon. Wittmund is on the list to be one of them.....
...that is how they told it on the radio, so do not get mad at me for this

[Slijfie]

Wittmund... I heard the rumour at Wittmund last week: closure next autumn, the end of the Luftwaffe Phantom. What 's the other airbase?

[zerofive]

next autumn 20101 or 2011??

[F-4G_rhino]

Wittmund... I heard the rumour at Wittmund last week: closure next autumn, the end of the Luftwaffe Phantom. What 's the other airbase?

So it is no longer a rumour anymore
As soon as I hear more about some other airbase, I will let you know.

Found this on a local news-web site (Jever). Sorry it is in German.

Wittmund: Wulff unterstützt Jagdgeschwader Richthofen
Niedersachsens Ministerpräsident Christian Wulff (CDU) setzt sich für den Erhalt des Wittmunder Jagdgeschwaders 71 „Richthofen“ ein. Das meldet der Anzeiger für Harlingerland. Hintergrund sind Forderungen des Bundesrechnungshofes, die Luftwaffengeschwader in Deutschland von derzeit fünf auf drei zu reduzieren.

On the radio they told Wittmund is on the list.

[frank kramer]

When we visited Wittmund in April, we were told that the original plan was to re-equip with Eurofighters in 2012. This had already been postponed to 2013, but there was a defence review ongoing that had one central question: "do we still need as many fighter wings as we have today", the self-evident answer apparently being negative; in the wake of this, base personnel were told that they were to be informed early May. One of the criteria in the decision was to be the amount of work needed to upgrade any base to being "Eurofighterproof". Given the state of Wittmund as witnessed during our visit this would require a lot of work there. Don't know about the other bases, though. The gut feeling of the people we spoke to however was that things might close down a lot sooner than was officially published at that time. Apparently, they were right...

[Arjan]

I have heard "rumours" that they want two fighter wings (Laage and Neuburg) and two fighter bomber wings (Norvenich and Buchel)

[F-4G_rhino]

again.....the only name that was mentioned in the news (on the radio) was Wittmund....
which is the only left real fighter base in Niedersachsen..... and it was "Hitradio Antenne Niedersachsen" which brought it.

...did not want to start a "rumours" discussion here. It wat just meant as an announcement what was on the radio today.
So, what I wrote is fact, the other air base names mentionned by others later on in this topic are rumours

[nilsko]

All speculation of course until some definite answers/statements show up. But it would mean either Lechfeld or Schleswig will be axed. But Lechfeld has dedicated SEAD assets whereas Schleswig has recce assets. What has prio? Or better, will the Taifun be modified to either roles..

(Maybe a seperate split towards the Praethuys might be in place to talk about the "what-ifs";-) )

[frank kramer]

There is of course a difference between axing bases and axing roles. Roles can be transferred to other wings. That would still make a base closure possible while keeping the role.

[F-4G_rhino]

(Maybe a seperate split towards the Praethuys might be in place to talk about the "what-ifs";-) )

You are totally right about "What if´s".....
But this one is already a little further than a normal "WHAT IF ??"
This Wittmund "what if??" is already spoken about in the news....

[nilsko]

@frank: True of course. But will it be on the same platform (Tornado)?

[Hans]

(Maybe a seperate split towards the Praethuys might be in place to talk about the "what-ifs";-) )

Military News seems to be a better forum, for the time being.

[frank kramer]

@frank: True of course. But will it be on the same platform (Tornado)?

Not necessarily, obviously. Given the fact that the Typhoon now has bomber capabilities, that the new Tornado recce pod (RAPTOR) is currently also being integrated on Polish AF F-16's and that Sniper pods are also used for both recce and SEAD purposes, the choice for a specific platform becomes less and less crucial. That's the downside of the swing-role concept.. air forces standardizing on either the F-16/F-22 line, the Eurofighter/Typhoon line or (in one case) the Rafale line.

In Germany's case this would lead to the conclusion that -apart from Wittmund - the question of which other base to close is more or less academic and most likely to be influenced heavily by political considerations.

[FISHER01]

This is very bad news, al the bases in the neighbourhood are closing, when leeuwarden and schleswig are closing to, there is nothing left in the North

[Triple Nickel]

Don't worry. I live in the south and all is closed...

You will get over it..

From my home:

Laarbruch 21km
Bruggen 40km
Wildenrath 60km
Brustem 110km
Bitburg 250km
Eifel (Hahn Zweibruecken Sembach...)

Al gone...

And it will go on...

Greetz, Ron