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Denmark's tøp guns trump RAF in Libya
Denmark's armed forces have had almost as much success in Libya as the RAF and the Royal Navy, The Times can reveal. A strike force of four Danish jets has hit almost as many targets in Libya as all of Britain's much larger contingent of warplanes and ships.
Barely a week after Admiral Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, said government cuts could leave Britain looking like "bloody Denmark", a senior Danish pilot described his role in a campaign that, according to defence sources, had the country's F16 jets fly up to eight combat sorties per day — easily one of the highest rates of the Nato-led coalition.
"At the beginning you really did not know what to expect," said the Danish pilot, call-sign MIR. "Every time you see the Libyan coastline you know that you are getting close to a threat and you start to be a lot more alert."
Denmark was one of the first countries to take part in the UN-mandated operation against the Gaddafi regime. The nation also has more than 700 soldiers deployed alongside British troops in Afghanistan, and fought in the Iraq war.
Denmark's six F16 jets — two are kept in reserve — have hit 913 targets since the campaign began in March. Britain's 16 Tornado jets, four Typhoon fighters and a unit of Apache attack helicopters, as well as at least two Royal Navy warships, hit 970.
Lord West, a security minister in the previous Government, was forced to apologise after he told a press conference last week that Britain was still a first-rate military power, "not like bloody Denmark or Belgium".
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/defence/article3178833.ece
Denmark's armed forces have had almost as much success in Libya as the RAF and the Royal Navy, The Times can reveal. A strike force of four Danish jets has hit almost as many targets in Libya as all of Britain's much larger contingent of warplanes and ships.
Barely a week after Admiral Lord West of Spithead, a former First Sea Lord, said government cuts could leave Britain looking like "bloody Denmark", a senior Danish pilot described his role in a campaign that, according to defence sources, had the country's F16 jets fly up to eight combat sorties per day — easily one of the highest rates of the Nato-led coalition.
"At the beginning you really did not know what to expect," said the Danish pilot, call-sign MIR. "Every time you see the Libyan coastline you know that you are getting close to a threat and you start to be a lot more alert."
Denmark was one of the first countries to take part in the UN-mandated operation against the Gaddafi regime. The nation also has more than 700 soldiers deployed alongside British troops in Afghanistan, and fought in the Iraq war.
Denmark's six F16 jets — two are kept in reserve — have hit 913 targets since the campaign began in March. Britain's 16 Tornado jets, four Typhoon fighters and a unit of Apache attack helicopters, as well as at least two Royal Navy warships, hit 970.
Lord West, a security minister in the previous Government, was forced to apologise after he told a press conference last week that Britain was still a first-rate military power, "not like bloody Denmark or Belgium".
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/defence/article3178833.ece
