Austrian Air Force
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An insight view into an Air Force in transition was given during a sunny, and sometimes also thundery week in June by the Austrian Air Force (Au AF).
Facing a major reorganisation of the whole AF structure called "ÖBH 2010"
What? Austria's Air Force
Where? several Austrian airbases
When? 06/2006
(ÖBH for Österreichisches Bundesheer) the future will see the disappearance of the Air Force itself as all the flying activities (and everything else involved with it of course) will be integrated as an "Air Staff" into the "Streitkräfteführungskommando" at Graz.
At the same time a "Kommando Luftraumüberwachung" ("Kdo LRÜ", Command for Air Surveillance) will be stationed at Salzburg to cover passive and active aerial surveillance. At the same time the "Kommando Luftunterstützung" ("Kdo LuU", command aerial support) in Linz/Hörsching will be responsible for transport and reconnaissance tasks using aircraft, helicopters and possibly recce drones in the future.
These two commands will be supplemented by the "Flieger- und Fliegerabwehrschule" ("WaGAS Fl/FlA", aviation- and anti aircraft school) in Langenlebarn responsible for the whole education of the personnel.
The visit of four airfields, namely
- Vogler at Hörsching,
Nittner at Graz/Thalerhof,
Hinterstoisser at Zeltweg and
Brumikovski at Langenlebarn near Vienna
gave an excellent overview of the current tasks of the AuAF, its lessons learned from the past and its challenges in the future.
The following pages are intended to give you an overview what aircraft are based on the different airfields of this tour and to show their role within the AuAF, so please proceed on the next page.
