Portugal’s annual two-week Real Thaw exercise involved assets from most of the country’s air force squadrons, as well as from Denmark, Spain and the US. Jorge Ruivo investigates.
Exercise Real Thaw 2018
The tenth Real Thaw took place at Base Aérea No 5 (BA5) Monte Real from January 26 to February 8. The exercise was inaugurated at the Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP, Portuguese Air Force) airfield in 2009, as a multinational effort aimed at achieving standardised training, especially for the F-16 operators of the European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) – Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal. The manoeuvres are scheduled at a time of the year when weather conditions are less than favourable in northern Europe.
The scenarios are planned to bring varied assets from different nations together to focus on major objectives. Activities include air-to-air and air-to-ground training, tactical air transport operations and close air support. Real Thaw offers all participants the chance to take part in a largeforce employment exercise in a joint area, with forces from either two or multiple nations working together.
As well as flying missions, Real Thaw encompasses support roles such as communicatio…
