Earlier this year the unit was on Bornholm to participate in Exercise AUT/BATT where the UAVs were flown from a field near Randkløve. This time the unit is placed at the exercise area at Raghammer Odde.
The task is to fly the UAVs into the large gunnery exercise areas east of Bornholm so that the participating naval units can test their ability to engage air targets during a so-called “MULTEX” exercise meaning MULti Threat Exercise or in plain english:
An exercise with various threats. During the exercise all the ships’ weapon systems are used to engage both targets placed at sea and the UAVs which fly in the restricted exercise area. The UAVs attack in the same way as a fighter plane would do in a real life situation.
The UAVs are small remote controlled planes which are controlled from a ground station. These small planes have a wing span and a length of about 3 meters, an operational range of about 40-50 km and a flying time of about three hours.
Master Chief Petty Officer Bøggild Gammelgaard Lohse who leads the Joint UAV Element explains that the task of the Joint UAV Element is to fly UAVs during exercises and training of the combat units of the Danish Defence.
The Joint UAV Element was established in the fall of 2004 following a reorganisation of the Navy UAV Service at the Naval Weapons School at Sjællands Odde which at that time had been active since the beginning of the fifties.
In the reorganisation the Joint UAV Element received personnel ressources from both the Air Force and the Army. Today the element consists of nine persons – five from the Navy and four from the Air Force.
Since the Joint UAV Element has many and very diverse tasks the element if fully mobile. Besides operating from its permanent home base at Gniben, Sjællands Odde, it also operates from permanent gunnery exercise areas in both Denmark and other countries and also from larger Navy units for example during missile firings in the North Atlantic.
Joint UAV Element at Raghammer
Odde |
The Joint UAV Element participates in DANEX 07 from the firing range at Raghammer Odde where a camp has been established with everything a modern unit needs to operate.
The Master Chief Petty Officer explains that the unit is equipped to handle its operations from the mobile base. During DANEX 07 the unit has, however, received support from the Air Force Combat Support Wing in the form of satellite links which transfer data and radarimages from different radars in Denmark to the unit.
The Joint UAV Element is therefore able to maintain flight safety at a very high level during operations in the air space above the Baltic Sea. The Joint UAV Element has also set up a terminal in the control tower at Rønne Airport and in the operations room at Naval District Bornholm and has established communication links to both these authorities which co-operate closely with the Joint UAV Element during the flights.
Fight safery is Alpha and Omega when the Joint UAV Element fly their BANSHEE 500 UAVs. Even though they only fly in restricted air space, they want to to be 100 percent sure that no harm is done to people or their property.
They are very happy to be back on Bornholm and experience a great interest for their work from the local population. Even though the UAVs make quite a lot of noise when they fly, the inhabitants of Bornholm do not have to fear that there is a problem wirh a UAV.
It is simply built with free exhaust from the engine. This gives more effect to manouver when we fly, the Master Chief Petty Officer ends.