Updated February 12, 2013
As already officialy reported by 52nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs, an undisclosed number of A-10Cs from the 81st Fighter Squadron "Panthers", 52nd Fighter Wing (USAFE), Spangdahlem AB, Germany, departed Feb. 8 for Air Base 5, Monte Real, Portugal, in support of exercice REAL THAW 13.
Meanwhile, on the German Flugzeugforum, Warthog News contributor Oliver Jonischkeit from Germany posted the following picture:
A-10C 82-0650 departs Spangdahlem for Portugal. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
As Oliver posted on the Dutch Scramble Messageboard, the following six "Hogs" departed for this exercise:
A-10C 81-0981
A-10C 81-0962
A-10C 81-0966
A-10C 82-0650
A-10C 82-0654
A-10C 82-0656
Source
Update February 12, 2013
Over the weekend, Oliver e-mailed me departure shots of all six "Hogs":
A-10C 81-0962. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
A-10C 81-0966, marked 52 OG as the 52nd Operations Group commander's aircraft. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
A-10C 81-0981. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
A-10C 82-0650. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
A-10C 82-0654. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
A-10C 82-0656. (Photo by Oliver Jonischkeit) Full size
BTW: In his e-mail Oliver pointed out that these "Hogs" departed Spangdahlem AB with callsigns Retro01-06, normally not used for inter-European NATO "deployments", much more for flights from Europe to Continental United States (CONUS). Maybe that could be a sign, these jets would never return to Germany...
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Hello from Portugal. I found your blog about Warthogs and I like it. I saw the 6 A-10 C landing at Monte Real air base for Real Thaw 2013. I will cover the exercice and if you want to my blog: http://cannontwo.blogspot.com/ has the first post with my photos from 2007 last time that the A-10 were at Monte Real. Hope you like it and if you need some photos send me an email:
ReplyDeletejorge_ruivo@net.sapo.pt
Regards from Portugal
Jorge Ruivo