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The Americans landed on Skaraborg’s F 7 air flotilla in Såtenäs on Monday. They belong to the 352nd flotilla of the United States Air Force for special operations, based in Mildenhall in the United Kingdom.
It is an elite unit whose soldiers carry out secret missions, often in the air or by parachute in the dark behind enemy lines. Both surprise attacks and the release of Americans imprisoned by terrorists are included in the data.
But his plane it can be seen in the light of day, and therefore the media was invited to a press conference on Tuesday. Closer to us on the concrete slab are two CV-22B Osprey aircraft. On the open gangway at the rear of the plane, a heavy machine gun is mounted. The cabin feels like a dark bus, packed with technology, weapons, and folding chairs for 32 soldiers.
– It is a unique plane in the sense that it can take off and land like a helicopter, but it can fly faster and faster than helicopters, explains one of the pilots who is not allowed to give his name.
One of the American force’s Osprey jets at Såtenäs, the engines can be tilted so that the plane can land and take off like a helicopter.
Photo: Adam Ihse / TT
Further afield, we get a glimpse of two large Hercules planes that can drop cargo and soldiers and refuel the Osprey jet in midair, giving the force a long range.
The exercise is the result of Sweden’s ever closer cooperation with the United States. During Defense Secretary Peter Hultqvist’s visit to the Pentagon in 2017, then-US Defense Secretary James Mattis told DN: “If you get in trouble, we will.”
This is such a fast bandage could be deployed in Sweden.
– If we receive such a request from our headquarters, it would of course be an opportunity to demonstrate our close cooperation with Sweden. With the exercise, we want to strengthen the partnership and show that no country alone can face the threats that exist in today’s world, responds the greatest who is the head of the American force. Even his name is secret.
During the two weeks in Sweden, the Americans will practice low-level flights, be escorted by Gripen jets, lead air strikes from both Swedish Gripen jets and American F 15 jets (based in Mildenhall), and practice and transport Swedish special forces.
If Sweden, in Matti’s words, got into trouble, can it get a union like this?
– Yes, I am convinced of that. That is exactly what we train, so that both countries learn from each other and increase their ability to work together to conduct joint operations, responds the leader of the exercise in F 7, Lieutenant Colonel Jonas Rohlen.
