The White Falcon - 29.05.1981, Qupperneq 4

4 White Falcon May 29, 1981
There is one command on the NATO
Base that always lets you know when
they are working and when they
aren't. Silence is the clue that the
command is enjoying some "down time"
from their usually hectic schedule,
while long deafening roars indicate
the command in question is on the
clock.
If you haven't guessed already,
the command is the 57th Fighter In-
terceptor Squadron (FIS), and the
roars, the F-4E Phantoms taking off
on another mission, of course.
Commanded by Lt. Col. Kenneth V.
Funkhouser (see change of command
story on page 3), the 57th FIS
serves the Iceland Defense Force and
NATO in both Air Defense and
ground attack roles. The 57th's
Phantoms and their crews are on
alert 24 hours a day to provide
immediate response. Crews can get
their aircraft airborne within
minutes of a "scramble" order and
on their way to intercept and iden-
tify unknown aircraft hundreds of
miles away from Keflavik.
During peacetime the 57th FIS'
main role is intercepting and iden-
tifying unknown aircraft flying in
and around the Icelandic Military
Air Defense Identification Zone
(MADIZ). "But why do we need to
identify aircraft during peace-
time?" you might be asking yourself.
Well, according to Captain Marvin
Cox, the 57th FIS Information
Officer, Communist bloc coun-
tries don't usually file
international flight
plans for their mili-
tary aircraft. So
it's similar to
a nervous
father whose daughter is going on
her first date; he wants to know
everything he can about the un-
known boy.
And in recent times a large num-
ber of unknown hoys, err, aircraft
have flown close to or in Iceland's
MADIZ. While the actual figure Is
classified, more than 160 inter-
cepts of unknown aircraft took place
last year. And according to Capt.
Cox, the 57th FIS is busier this
year, with the percentage of inter-
cepts up 70’ percent from last year.
In the first quarter, the 57th FIS
intercepted over 30 aircraft.
The majority of intercepts take
place on Tuesdays, Thursdays and
Fridays. The Soviet Union's TU-95,
better known as the Bear, pays the
most visits to our MADIZ enroute to
Cuba. A usual mission takes the
Bears past Iceland and the east
coast of the United States to
Cuba. After a week, the Bears
fly back via Angola and then
past Iceland again.
The Bear, which can be
used for many different
roles (anti-sub-
marine, reconnais
sance, etc.) has
tremendous
flying
capa-
out of the largest air base in
the world in Murmansk.
Capt. Cox explained that one of I
the Bears' normal missions takes
them past Bodo where our NATO part-
ners, the Norwegians, have an air
base. Like the 57th FIS, the Nor-
wegians can intercept and identify
any unknown aircraft flying in or
close to their identification zone.
From Bodo, the Bears continue south
towards Iceland. Our first
detection of the approaching
aircraft here in Iceland
comes from the 960th
AWACSS or one of two
ground radar sites
in Iceland,
e
Hofn and
bilities,
and can stay
airborne over 20
hours at a time,
without refueling.
Some of the Bears the
57th FIS encounter operate
Rock-
ville.
Once picked
up on radar,
the unknown air-
craft is tracked
closely by an operations
officer in the OpCon, who
is called the "Hammer."
It's the Hammer's responsibility
to determine exactly when to launch
the two F-4Es on alert. According
to Capt. Cox, the Hammer attempts
to launch the Phantoms so they wil
meet the unknown aircraft right at
the boundary of the MADIZ. This is
done for an obvious and logical
reason—the F-4Es can only stay air-
borne for about 2% hours before