NATO Secretary General Fogh Rasmussen, visiting the exercise in his native country, witnessed a Dutch Helicopter Assault Force Special Operations Task Unit (HAFSOTU) in action during a particularly high profile mission at night in downtown Odense.Īn abandoned wharehouse harboured a small number of hostages being held to ransom by heavily armed insurgents. Special reconnaissance, direct action, counter terrorism and hostage release operation missions had to be executed each mission being preceded by its own Military Decision Making Process (MDMP). Participating special operations forces were challenged to demonstrate their skills in a wide spectrum of scenarios. The tactical phase of the exercise got underway late in the first week. Military free fall (MFF) parachuting was not left out and performed on different occasions. Dutch combat divers were dropped at night by parachute together with their specially rigged Medium Inflatable Boats (MIB). Together with their Swedish counterparts, the C-130 crews also executed a series of airborne operations. Danish Hercules transports made use of a beach strip at Blokhus near Aalborg specifically for this purpose. UK specialist Tactical Air Traffic Control Unit personnel assisted their NATO allies in conducting Tactical Landing Zone (TLZ) operations. Some close quarter battle training and fastroping out of available helicopters ensued during the next two days followed by aerial live firing and helicopter vehicle interdiction tactics. On the first day of NH11, participants were briefed on the specific safety aspects of the various helicopter types. Swedish special operations forces from K4 regiment were attached to experienced personnel from 108 SF Company, Royal Netherlands Army Korps Commandotroepen (Special Forces Regiment) to form SOTG-B. Domestic Jaegerkorpset special forces, together with German and US counterparts from the Kommando Spezialkräfte and 10th Special Forces Group, took charge of SOTG-A. Two special operations task groups (SOTG) were led by a Danish Combined Joint Forces Special Operations Component Command (CJFSOCC). So, participating SF operators did their best to use it to the utmost. It is quite rare for modern day exercises to be supported by such overwhelming air power due to the fact that helicopter assets are in such high demand for real world operations. Special Forces commanders praised their Danish hosts for inviting all the aircraft. RDAF mid life updated F-16s joined in to provide training to joint tactical air controllers (JTAC) with a number of close air support (CAS) sorties. However, it was conceived by the Royal Danish Air Force (RDAF) many years ago, which explains why this specific exercise manages to attract a large diversity of participating air assets year after year.Ī combined special operations air task group (SOATG) provided rotary wing and fixed wing air support during NH11 (Nighthawk 2011), comprising Swedish Flygvapnet A109 Light Utility Helicopters (Hkp15A) and C-130E Hercules (Tp84) air transports, Finnish NH90-TTHs and Danish EH101-512 Merlin and AS550C2 Fennec helicopters in addition to some C-130J-30s. Nighthawk is a multinational exercise which is nowadays led by the Danish Army Special Operations Force (DANSOF). Danish air force base Aalborg was once again host to this year’s edition of the special operations exercise Nighthawk (October 3rd-October 14th).
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