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Early years
The Belgian Air Force was founded in 1909 as a branch of the Belgian Army. It originally carried the name of Compagnie des Ouvries et Aérostiers. At the start of the First World War, the military aviation branch consisted of four squadrons equipped with Farman aircraft. In March 1915 it was expanded to six squadrons. One of its pilots, Willy Coppens, even became the top ranking "balloon buster" of German observation balloons of World War I.
At the start of World War II, the Army Air Force had three active Air Force Regiments. Planes which were used by those regiments were the Renard, the Fiat CR42, the Hawker Hurricane, the Gloster Gladiator, the Fairey Fox, and the Fairey Battle. These were massacred by the much superior German Luftwaffe in the German invasion of May 1940. After the surrender of Belgium on 28 May 28 1940, a very small Belgian Air Force in exile was created in Great Britain. This small force was active within the British Royal Air Force, and its squadrons were equipped with versions of the much better aircraft, the British Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Typhoon.
During the Cold War
On 15 October 1946, the Belgian military aviation was turned into an autonomous force, independent of the Belgian Army.
During the Cold War, at various times the Belgian Air Force operated the following planes:
- The British Gloster Meteor fighter
- The American Republic F-84 Thunderjet fighter-bomber
- The American Douglas C-47B Skytrain and Fairchild C-119F/G Flying Boxcar transports.
- Fouga Magister
- The Canadian Avro-Canada CF-100 Canuck interceptor
- The British Hawker Hunter attack plane
- The American Lockheed F-104 Starfighter, a NATO standard fighter/interceptor of many countries, including The Netherlands, Belgium, West Germany, Italy, Greece, Turkey, and the USAF
- The French Dassault Mirage 5
- The American Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport
- Douglas DC-3 passenger transport
- The American General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon, a NATO standard fighter/interceptor of many countries, including Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium, Greece, Turkey, and the USAF.
- The French Alpha Jet
- The Italian SIAI-Marchetti SF.260M/D propellor-driven trainer aircraft
and helicopters:
- Aérospatiale Alouette II and Aérospatiale Alouette III
- The American Sikorsky S-58
- Westland Sea King, built under license from Sikorsky
Post Cold War reforms - COMOPSAIR
In the beginning of the nineties, the end of the Cold War caused the Belgian government to restructure the Belgian Armed Forces in order to cope with the changed threats. This meant cutbacks and crimping the Armed Forces. The Belgian Air Force was hit hard and saw its strength more than halved with the disbanding of the 3rd Tactical Wing in Bierset (1994); the disbanding of the 1st Fighter Wing in Beauvechain; the 9th Training Wing in Sint-Truiden; and the Elementary Flying School in Goetsenhoven (1996).
In 2002, the Belgian government decided to emulate Canada and impose a "single structure" on its armed forces in which the independent Belgian Air Force ceased to exist. The former Air Force became the Belgium Air Component (COMOPSAIR) of the Armed Forces. COMOPSAIR nowadays consists of the 2nd Tactical Wing in Florennes and the 10th Tactical Wing in Kleine Brogel, both flying the F-16 in four squadrons. Out of the 160 F-16s origingally bought by Belgium, only 90 were updated then; with further reductions to 72 aircraft in 2005; and planned to 60 by 2015. The 1st Wing at Beauvechain is assigned with the training of pilots for which the Marchetti propellor-driven trainer aircraft is used for elementary training, and the Alpha Jet for advanced training. Advanced fighter training occurs in the F-16 at Kleine Brogel.
COMOPSAIR still uses the Lockheed C-130 Hercules (in the 15th Air Transport Wing based at Melsbroek, Belgium, which in time is planned to be replaced by seven Airbus A400M transport planes. VIPs are transported with Embraer 135/145 jets, and the Dassault 20/900. The Sea King helicopters and the Alouette III SAR helicopters will be active for still another few years. They will be replaced by NH-90's.
In 2004, as part of the new unified structure, the Army Aviations units were transferred to the COMOPSAIR. These contain the Agusta A109 attack helicopter, and the Alouette II training and scout helicopter.
Within the framework of its commitments within the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. Belgium has allotted its 72 F-16s to NATO purposes. Two squadrons with a total of 36 aircraft have been designated for use by the Rapid Reaction Forces.
Operations
In January 1991, 18 Mirage V aircraft of the 3rd Tactical Wing were deployed to Turkey's Diyarbakir air base. During this operation, Belgian planes carried out several deterrent flights along the Iraqi border.
From October 1996 on, the Belgian Air Force cooperated with the Dutch Royal Air Force in the Deployable Air Task Force in patrolling the former Yuguslavian airspace. F-16s of the 2nd and 10th Tactical Wings, operating from the Italian bases of Villafranca and Amendola, were entrusted with missions ensuring the control and monitoring the no-fly zone and providing the air support necessary for UN and NATO troops. Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, 12 Belgian F-16s carried out 679 combat sorties - the first time since the Second World War that Belgian aircraft took part in war operations in enemy territory - against Yugoslavia during the Kosovo crisis. The last Belgian F-16 detachment left Italy in August 2001.
On March 29 2004, 4 F-16s from Kleine Brogel were transferred under NATO's Baltic Air Policing mission to the Sioulai air base in Lithuania for 3 months where they were employed in monitoring Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia sky.
On 9 September 2005, an F-16 crashed near Vlieland, The Netherlands. The pilot died.
On 5 May 2006, a Belgian C-130 undergoing revision at Sabena Technics was destroyed when the hangar it was in burned to the ground. The C-130 and three commercial planes were destroyed beyond recovery. The Belgian Air force has announced its intention to acquire a second hand C-130 to replace the one lost in the fire.