During the week of 9-12 June, the civil airport of Oulu, 200km (125 miles) south of the polar circle near the Gulf of Bothnia, became a busy Finnish air force air base. Once a year, the service has the annual gun and missile shooting camp at Oulu. In total, 40 pilots and 160 support crew took part in this year's exercise.
Two of the air force's three fighter squadrons(HavLLv) sent detachments to the exercise. The HavLLv 11 of the Lapland Air Command descended from the northern base of Rovaniemi with five Saab Drakens and three British Aerospace Hawks. HavLLv 31, of Kuopio-Rissala AB in eastern Finland, was present with seven MiG-21s - almost half of the operational MiG fleet - and four Hawks. The Karelian Air Command was also in charge of two target-towing Learjet 35A/As and one Mil Mi-8T rescue helicopter.
HavLLv 21 of the Satakunta Air Command at Pirkkala air base in southern Finland did not participate in the shooting camp, as it had its own exercise with F-18s early this year.
Besides the fighter aircraft, several transport and liaison aircraft supported the exercise. In a wooden barrack hidden in the pine forest at Oulu, Lt Col Kari Janaunen, Commander of HavLLv 31 explains the daily procedure, saying: "A shooting day starts with a weather flight of a fighter to check the weather over the range. Later, a target-towing Learjet checks the range, which extends to 175km west of Oulu in the Gulf of Bothnia, by means of its radar, for air traffic and vessels."
Any aircraft present are told to leave the range and, in the case of vessels, the actual shooting is performed in another area. The Learjet is equipped with two wing pods with a target banner. The targets are towed at a 1km distance in a profile in which the Learjet describes a circle at 435kt (805km/h) under an angle of 30 degrees at an altitude of between 5,000ft (1,500m) and 10,000ft.
The MiGs use the Gsh-23 23mm cannon and the Drakens the 30mm Aden cannon, while the Hawks use the centreline podded 30mm Aden cannon. The hits are counted by means of air-pressure differences with a microphone located in the front of the banner. The banner, in turn, is shot at by the two fighters, one of which is within the circular flight profile of the Learjet and one outside the circle. After the run, the circle is crossed and the fighters switch places. Before actual shooting is performed, the pilot makes one to three aiming runs, followed by about eight shooting runs.
"In excess of 100 gunnery missions were flown in one and a half days. Due to the nearby range, the mission times varied between 18min and 40min. Take-off started in the early morning and continued into the early evening as, due to the summer-night Sun, it does not get dark."
During the following two days, more than 50 missile missions were flown. The missiles needed another type of target other than the towed banner - the M-5 target, which was carried on the wing pylon of a MiG-21bis.
The M-5 (a large magnesium flare which descends slowly, hanging on a parachute) looks identical to a standard 100kg Russian practice bomb. Over the range, three fighters fire missiles on the M-5 which has been dropped, while being observed by two Hawks. The first two infra-red missiles are fired at the flare, while the third is a radar-homing missile which homes in on the reflection of the parachute.
The MiG-21s carried the Vympel R-13M (AA-2D Atoll) and the Molniya R-60 (AA-8 Aphid) infra-red guided missiles as well as the Vympel R-3R (AA-2C Atoll) semi-active radar-homing missile. The Drakens fired both versions of the Swedish-built AIM-4 Falcon missile: the infra-red homing AIM-4D/26 (known in Sweden as the Rb28) and the larger AIM-4 semi-active radar-homing (Rb27) weapon. The Drakens are also capable of firing the AIM-9J Sidewinder, but were also seen carrying Russian R-13M (AA-2D Atoll) infra-red missiles instead.
The Hawks can carry the AIM-9J Sidewinder and R-60, but only fired the latter. This was the MiG-21bis' last appearance at Oulu as it will be taken out of service before the end of this year.
Source: Flight International