Laupheim AB, Germany - 10/07/2008

In complete contrast to the rains of the previous day, the Thursday of our week in Germany starting with the most glorious clear blue skies.

The morning was to be spent at Laupheim's Exercise ELITE 08 press event.

Laupheim is home to mittleres Transporthubschrauberregiment 25 (MTHRgt 25), "Oberschwaben" and their Sikorsky CH-53 helicopters.

The airfield dates back to 1935 when it was setup as a war and combat base, but in 1944 it was destroyed by allied bombardment during a World War II raid. In 1963 it was handed over to the Heersflieger (Army) and the first of the CH-53s were delivered to the unit in 1971.

MTHRgt 25's roles include that of combat troop transport, medevac, the transportation of materials, both internally and externally, firefighting as well as resupply, all on a worldwide basis wherever they're needed.

The medevac fit can see the CH-53 evacuate six patients in an intensive care state.

In recent times the unit has been involved in relief efforts assisting the Kurds in Iraq, in Austrian following extensive avalanches in 1999, and rescuing people from the flooding from the Elber in 2002.

Military operations have included IFOR, SFOR, KFOR, ISAF, Albania, Macedonia and Somalia, among others, and to this day a significant presence is still maintained in Afghanistan.

Our visit started by the taxiway as three non-Ex ELITE CH-53s departed to Bavaria for an exercise. They even came back through to perform a flypast for us.

Following the media briefing we were taken for a look around the hangars as we waited for the ELITE traffic to get airborne.

Perhaps the most fascinating thing of the whole morning was watching this CH-53GS 'unfurl' itself ready for flight. He was one of two being launched by MTHR 25 for the morning's wave.

Present for the exercise were four Belgian Defence Force Agusta A109BAs from Bierset.

Also taking part was a Sea King Mk88A from MFG-5 of the German Navy (Marineflieger), based at Kiel.

Several standard CH-53Gs were present in the other hangars.

A pair of Bo-105s operated from the airfield during Ex ELITE, but I'm not too sure if they were from the resident HFUS 10 (or even if that unit still exists - there was no mention of it while we were there).

This CH-53 had been up on an air-test.

Preserved on base are these two:

Apparently the CH-34's history is with the Belgian Air Force, where it was a VIP transport.

And that concluded a very interesting morning with the Heeresflieger.